The body that governs Premier League officiating has admitted that Erling Haaland’s winning goal in the Manchester derby should not have been allowed to stand, conceding an “error of judgement” that decided a fixture Manchester City won 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday and leaves Manchester United with an apology instead of a point.
Pro Ref, the refereeing organisation formerly known as PGMOL, contacted United directly after the match to acknowledge that the video assistant referee had got it wrong. Haaland’s 60th-minute finish from Josko Gvardiol’s deflected left-wing cross was initially ruled out by the assistant’s flag. VAR intervened, established that the Norwegian himself was onside, and the goal was awarded. What the review did not properly weigh was Enzo Fernandez, who was in an offside position and dived to head the ball as it travelled across the six-yard box.
Fernandez did not make contact. That, in the moment, was treated as the end of the matter. Pro Ref’s statement says it should not have been: the VAR “did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.”
The 60th minute, frame by frame
The sequence is unusually clean to reconstruct, which is part of why the admission has landed so heavily. Gvardiol’s cross took a deflection off a United defender and looped towards the far post. Fernandez, several yards offside, launched himself at it in front of Lisandro Martinez and United goalkeeper Senne Lammens. The ball passed him. Haaland, arriving behind the chaos, converted.
According to ESPN, the VAR officials on duty were Matthew Donohue and Blake Antrobus. Their reading was that Fernandez was not actively interfering with play because he never touched the ball — a defensible first instinct, and precisely the sort of judgement the on-field review protocol exists to stress-test. It was not used.
Martinez, who was directly behind Fernandez, was unequivocal afterwards, calling the decision an “injustice” and pointing out that “five or six people” arrived at it. United head coach Michael Carrick was, if anything, bleaker. “I just don’t get it, I really don’t get it,” he said. “It’s worrying, it really is if that’s how the game is seen by those who are officiating.”
What the law actually says
Law 11 does not require a touch. A player in an offside position commits an offence by interfering with an opponent — and the law lists, among the qualifying actions, obstructing an opponent’s line of vision and making an obvious action that clearly impacts an opponent’s ability to play the ball. A full-length dive at a cross in front of a defender and a goalkeeper is close to a textbook illustration of the second clause.
That is the gap Pro Ref has now conceded. The error was not the offside line, which semi-automated technology has largely made a matter of millimetres and arithmetic. It was the human interpretation layered on top of it — the part the machines were never going to solve. This is the recurring flaw in seven seasons of VAR in England: the technology answers the question it is asked, and the officials asked the wrong one.
An apology in a familiar tradition
English football has been here before, and the precedent is not encouraging. In October 2023, PGMOL admitted a “significant human error” after Luis Diaz’s legitimate goal for Liverpool at Tottenham was wrongly disallowed, later releasing the VAR audio in an attempt at transparency. Liverpool lost that match 2-1. The admission arrived; the result did not move.
The same arithmetic applies here, and it applies to a derby City won with ten men. Phil Foden was dismissed in the 23rd minute for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes in a first-half skirmish — one his manager Enzo Maresca argued should have brought a second red card the other way. City defended for 67 minutes a man short and won it with the one moment of contested legality in the game.
Maresca, understandably, preferred to talk about “effort, spirit and togetherness.” He is entitled to. But a numerical disadvantage of that size usually removes the margin for officiating luck rather than magnifying it, and that contrast is why this particular admission stings at Old Trafford more than most.
What it means from here
The table records City joint-top with Arsenal on maximum points from four matches. It records United 13th, with one win, one draw and two defeats. Neither line will be amended.
The consequences, such as they are, will be procedural: officials quietly rotated away from high-profile appointments, the incident dissected at the next Key Match Incidents review, another set of clips shown to a television audience already convinced the system is arbitrary. What Pro Ref has bought with its candour is credibility of process. What it cannot buy back is the outcome.
For United, the more urgent problem is that a side which has taken four points from twelve cannot afford to have its grievances be the most interesting thing about its season. Carrick knows it. The apology is real, and it is worth something — but it is not worth two points, and there is no mechanism in the game that will ever make it so.
Ahmad Ali is Sports Editor at SportsPortal.net.
**Sources:** [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49932067/premier-league-referees-body-apologises-man-united-derby-offside-controversy) · [Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/13/manchester-city-wrongly-awarded-haaland-goal-by-var-at-united-refs-body) · [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/referees-admit-var-error-on-erling-haalands-derby-winner/) · [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/referees-group-pro-ref-acknowledges-220034604.html) · [NBC Sports](https://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/live/manchester-united-vs-man-city-live-updates-score-goals-highlights-stats-2026-september-13)
Article is 815 words. Two notes on verification: I confirmed the story is real across ESPN, Al Jazeera, CBS and Yahoo before writing. I deliberately did not name the on-field referee — no source I checked confirmed it — and the VAR officials are attributed to ESPN in-text since only that one outlet named them.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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