Sunday 13 September 2026 23:14, UK
Refereeing body Pro Ref has admitted an error in awarding Manchester City's winner at Manchester United in their 1-0 victory at Old Trafford.
In a statement released just hours after Man City's win, Pro Ref revealed it had made contact with Man Utd to acknowledge an "error of judgment" and that the VAR "should have recommended an on-field review" for Erling Haaland's winner.
The striker's goal was initially disallowed for offside on the pitch before VAR overturned the decision.
The VAR officials deemed that Haaland was played onside by Man Utd defender Patrick Dorgu. However, Man City's Enzo Fernandez was in an offside position as he attempted to play the ball before it reached Haaland.
Despite not touching the ball, Fernandez's movement appeared to impact the defending of Man Utd's Lisandro Martinez before Haaland's back-post finish, which by the laws of the game should have led to the goal remaining disallowed.
A Pro Ref spokesperson said: "Following the incident in the 60th minute of Sunday's Premier League fixture between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford, we can provide clarification regarding Erling Haaland's awarded goal.
"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 Fernandez 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."
Pro Ref (Professional Game Referees) is English football's refereeing body, which was formerly known as PGMO (Professional Game Match Officials) after a rebrand in the summer. Ex-Premier League referee Howard Webb leads the body, which oversees the four men's top divisions, the National League, the WSL and the U21s Premier League 2.
In their post on X explaining why the goal was awarded, the Premier League Match Centre wrote: 'VAR checked the referee's call of no goal for offside – and determined that Haaland was in an onside position and recommended that the goal was awarded. The VAR also deemed that while in an offside position, Fernandez didn't play the ball.'
That stress on Fernandez not playing the ball chimed with replays shown during the VAR review, in which the VAR officials apparently sought to detect whether or not the City midfielder played the ball.
However, the offside rule clearly stipulates that a player can be offside despite not playing the ball and can interfere with an opponent by:
Speaking at the time of the goal on co-commentary, Sky Sports' Gary Neville believed the VAR officials were "wrong" to award Haaland's effort.
Pro Ref's statement, however, fell short of Neville's prediction that they would apologise.
