Manchester derby VAR misjudgment, refereeing body chief admits 'tunnel vision' was the cause

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ahn Hong-seok = Regarding the misjudgment of the winning goal onside in the English professional soccer match 'Manchester Derby' last weekend, the person in charge of the refereeing organization personally appeared on the broadcast and apologized, revealing the circumstances.

According to Reuters, Howard Webb, Chief Referee Operations Officer at Pro Ref, the English professional soccer referee organization, appeared on the sports broadcaster Sky Sports on the 15th (local time) and explained that the misjudgment occurred when the VAR referee fell into 'tunnel vision'.

Tunnel vision is a medical term that refers to being so focused on what you see in front of you that your field of vision narrows to the point where you can't look around.

Manchester City's Erling Holland scored the winning goal in the 15th minute of the second half in the match against Manchester United (Man United) played at Old Trafford.

Joszko Gvardiol's low cross from the left was completed by Holland on the other side of the goal.

The referee initially declared offside, but after a video review (VAR), he corrected it as onside and acknowledged the goal, and Manchester City won 1-0 over Manchester United with this goal.

However, Manchester City's Enso Fernandez, who was between Manchester United's Lisandro Martinez, who was blocking Holland, and the goal, was clearly in an offside position.

Proref acknowledged the error after the game, saying, "The VAR referee was not aware of the possibility that Fernandez's position may have affected the score."

According to the web operator, the reason why the misjudgment occurred was because VAR referee Matt Donoghue was so focused on determining whether Fernandez's header was correct that he did not check Fernandez's position when Holan shot.

Before Holland's shot, Fernandez attempted a header on Gvardiol's cross. At this time, if the ball made contact with Fernandez's head, it was offside.

In the ProRef investigation, it was revealed that not only referee Donohue but also other referees in the VAR room were only focused on this scene.

Afterwards, no one in the VAR room took into account the fact that Fernandez was in an offside position that affected Martinez's defensive play in Holland's shooting situation.

“Donoghue has tunnel vision,” said Webb. “It’s up to the rest of the team to get him out of that tunnel vision, but unfortunately they couldn’t do it this time.”

“This goal should have been disallowed, but very regrettably it was not done,” he said. “We will look at this matter again, reflect on it, and ensure that this rare type of error does not occur again.”