Haaland's goal error leads to the exclusion of two Premier League referees

The Premier League's referees committee has decided to remove two referees from the next round of matches following a controversial refereeing error during the Manchester derby between United and City, which ended in a 1-0 victory for City at Old Trafford. Matt Donohue, the VAR referee, will miss the next round after confirming Erling Haaland's goal that secured the win for Manchester City. His assistant in the VAR room, Blake Antrobus, will also be absent from officiating duties during the same round. The decision came after the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) acknowledged an error in assessing the incident leading up to Haaland's goal, stating that VAR did not correctly consider the crucial details of the play that led to the goal being disallowed. The goal was initially ruled out for offside before VAR intervened and recommended that it stand, concluding that Haaland was not offside when the ball was passed to him. However, a subsequent review revealed that the VAR team failed to account for the influence of Argentinian Enzo Fernandez, who attempted to play the ball while in an offside position – a factor that should have led to the goal being disallowed. Howard Webb, the head of the referees committee, and his team made the decision to exclude the two referees, amid expectations that they will not return to their duties in the league before the end of the next international break at the earliest.