Haaland appeared to be offside upon first glance as he scored the only goal in Man City’s 1-0 win over rivals Man United over the weekend.
The Norwegian was confirmed to be onside, however, but the same cannot be said for teammate Enzo Fernandez.
VAR adjudged Fernandez not to have interfered in play despite clearly occupying Lisandro Martinez and going to head the ball in the build-up.
Pro Ref have since come out with a statement apologizing and saying that the decision was an ‘error of judgement’.
Webb, former referee and now head of Pro Ref, has suggested that the VAR team had ‘tunnel vision’ on Haaland’s situation, so they didn’t pay as much attention to Fernandez’s.
“We felt it was important that we acknowledged an error in the situation,” Webb said.
“We know that Erling Haaland was penalised for offside and wasn't in an offside position. We also know that Enzo Fernandez, who was in an offside position, almost certainly interfered with the Manchester United defence and probably the goalkeeper.
“I was really disappointed with this outcome, we all were. None more than the officials. They take personal pride in what they do and they are hurting now after falling short in this situation. They will not be officiating until after the international break.
“We have reached out to Manchester United and acknowledged the error, as we do when these things happen and they do not happen often. We want to ensure we are transparent and open.
“We have played the audio and footage to the club to let them know what happened. We will review the situation to understand what elements of the process fell down in this situation which meant we didn't get to the right outcome.”
Webb added: “The on-field decision was not against Fernandez, it was against Haaland. When the VAR starts their check, they see that Haaland is actually onside by three centimetres.
“The VAR gets super focused on Haaland. He establishes he is onside but when he runs it through the full APP (full attacking possession phase), he doesn't truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez.
“In that moment, he gets tunnel vision but it is down to the rest of his team to pull him out of that tunnel but unfortunately, that did not happen on this occasion. This goal should have been disallowed.”