There is never any shortage of controversy in English football! Manchester City took all three points from Old Trafford, but several hours after the Manchester derby, the English refereeing body issued an admission that will only further fuel the frustration at Manchester United, especially after everything Michael Carrick said in the heat of the moment immediately after the match. Namely, PRO Ref confirmed that there had been an “error of judgment” during the VAR review of Erling Haaland’s winning goal. The controversial incident occurred in the 60th minute. Haaland’s goal was initially ruled out for offside, but a VAR review determined that the Norwegian had been in an onside position because Patrick Dorgu had kept him onside.
However, as you probably already know, the problem was Enzo Fernandez’s role in the move. City’s new midfielder was in an offside position and attempted to play the ball before it reached Haaland. Fernandez did not actually touch it, meaning that his potential offside position was not automatically an offense, leaving the referee to decide whether his movement and attempt to play the ball had interfered with Lisandro Martínez inside the penalty area.
And now the Professional Game Referees admitted their mistake.”The on-field decision was offside against Erling Haaland — that was checked by VAR and he was found to be in an onside position. In the same attack, it was established that Enzo Fernández did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective, however, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.
Contact has been made with Manchester United this evening to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place” a Pro Ref spokesperson said.
Off course, this mistake will not give United their point back, or will it nullify the City’s win. Despite his team’s bad display, United’s coach Michael Carrick was rightfully annoyed by this whole situation.”Confused, not even confused, we’ve put things in place to help referees’ decisions, screens, referees in an office somewhere.
It’s more worrying about if that’s the interpretation about football. If we’ve got people in place that are meant to understand the game of football or not interfering with play or impacting an attack, throwing your body at it with a defender next to him, it’s really worrying for me, if that’s how it’s interpreted. It’s a staggering decision. I can’t understand it once I seen it then the explanation almost makes it worse. Well, the explanation that he’s not interfering with play. Incredible” he said after the match.