Football’s dullest debate becomes the big talking point yet again

It was only a matter of time before refereeing controversy dominated the conversation. For the newly rebranded Pro Ref, that it has happened this early in the season is far from ideal, however.

Officiating became a big talking point on Saturday night, when Mikel Arteta chose to highlight what he described as an “unacceptable” penalty decision against his team. It proved not to be decisive to the result, with David Raya‘s fantastic stop denying Sunderland‘s Enzo Le Fee from the spot before the Gunners went on to secure a hard fought 2-0 victory, but the Arsenal boss was left furious that it could have cost his side.

But the biggest controversy of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon after a decision which would prove decisive to the end result. After a lengthy VAR check, it was decided that Erling Haaland‘s second-half goal would be allowed to stand, handing Manchester City a narrow 1-0 win over their rivals Manchester United.

It did not feel right at the time. Haaland looked offside in the first place, only for the semi-automated technology to deem he was not, but the bigger issue was in the assessment that Enzo Fernandez, who was definitely offside, had not interfered with the play despite going in for a diving header. “It’s worrying if that’s how the game is seen by those who are officiating,” Man Utd boss Michael Carrick said in his post-match press conference afterwards.

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He has a point. There have been goals disallowed in recent seasons because of far, far less “interference” than what Fernandez did. It felt pretty cut and dry. Fernandez was clearly impacting those around him with his attempt to head the ball.

But the fact this is dominating the discourse around the Manchester derby is bleak not only because of the inadequacy of the officials to interpret the rules correctly, but the fact that the micro lens in which the game is now viewed means decisions like this are viewed as even more egregious.

It is completely understandable. If we are going to have the game we all love regularly disrupted by constant VAR meddling and delays while replays are checked, sometimes for as long as five minutes, then surely the correct decision is a fair expectation.

Referees have a hugely difficult job and have to make decisions under significant pressure but, at the risk of sounding like Roy Keane, that is their job. Mistakes will inevitably happen, but for what we’re sacrificing by having VAR in the game, when big decisions in the biggest of games are still being judged wrongly, the question must again be asked, is this all worth it?

Refereeing decisions are discussed more regularly and with more passion than they ever have been. And the luxury of being able to view multiple replays of an incident from different angles has quite rightly increased the expectations for officials to get things right.

This might sound like a big contradiction considering this entire piece so far has been about refereeing, but it really is quite dull. Even the words “interfering with play” alone are enough to put you to sleep. We would all rather be talking about how each team played (which we will do) or the brilliant piece of skill that decided the game instead of the intricacies of the offside law.

But ultimately, we cannot ignore it. It was what decided the game, after all.

It took just a couple of hours after the game for Pro Ref to admit the officials had made a mistake. “The VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review,” the statement acknowledged. That will be of little comfort to Manchester United, with Carrick joking that he “can’t wait” for the apology when speaking after the game.