VAR Got It Wrong, Changed the Result – Now the Officials Have Been Stood Down

The two VAR officials involved in wrongly allowing Manchester City’s winner at Old Trafford have been stood down from Premier League duty until after the international break.

Matt Donohue and assistant VAR Blake Antrobus were responsible for reviewing Erling Haaland’s decisive goal in City’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United.

The assistant referee initially ruled the goal out.

VAR intervened and overturned that decision after establishing that Haaland himself was onside.

It failed to properly account for Enzo Fernández, who was in an offside position and attempted to play the cross before it reached Haaland.

Pro Ref subsequently admitted an “error of judgement”, saying VAR should have recognised the likely impact of Fernández’s position and sent referee Michael Oliver to the monitor.

Now the officials responsible have been removed from the next round of Premier League fixtures.

The officials are punished. The result remains.

The original on-field decision was correct.

VAR intervened and changed it.

The intervention produced the only goal of the Manchester derby.

The refereeing body admitted the mistake.

The VAR officials have now been stood down.

Manchester City still won 1-0.

Football cannot realistically replay every match containing a refereeing error. Nor can league tables be rewritten whenever officials make mistakes.

But VAR was introduced precisely to reduce decisive errors, not manufacture new ones.

When an intervention is serious enough for the officials responsible to be removed from duty, supporters are entitled to question a system capable of acknowledging and punishing the mistake while leaving its competitive consequence untouched.