VAR who wrongly awarded Manchester City’s derby winner set for Premier League return – The Irish News

The VAR who incorrectly awarded Erling Haaland’s Manchester derby goal last month has been reinstated to Premier League duty.

Matt Donohue, who along with assistant Blake Antrobus failed to spot Manchester City’s Enzo Fernandez was offside and interfering with play in the game at Old Trafford on September 13, will be the assistant VAR at Saturday’s match between Coventry and Fulham.

Donohue has not featured in any of the three match rounds since the incident. Antrobus made his first appearance since the derby as an assistant referee for the Newcastle v Aston Villa match last Saturday.

Pro Ref’s chief refereeing officer Howard Webb said Donohue had developed “tunnel vision” in focusing on whether Haaland was in an offside position and added it was the job of the team around Donohue to help pull him out of that tunnel.

He has featured in the EFL since the derby and was the referee for the Championship match between Southampton and Bolton last Saturday and the Derby v Wrexham game on October 10.

Meanwhile, the VAR recommendation to send off Brighton’s Pascal Struijk in the match against Sunderland on October 10 was backed by the Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel, despite Struijk’s suspension later being removed for wrongful dismissal by an independent regulatory commission.

The five-person KMI panel, which is comprised of three former players and coaches, one Premier League representative and one from Pro Ref, disagreed with the on-field decision not to send off Struijk for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

The panel backed the VAR recommendation to overturn the on-field decision and show a red card three to two.

The Premier League pointed out in publishing the KMI panel outcomes for match round six that the panel and the independent commission which quashed the suspension are entirely separate bodies with different purposes and processes.