The Premier League uses two systems for VAR: Does it cause problems? Did it impact Haaland goal?

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The Premier League’s use of VAR is facing further scrutiny after Erling Haaland’s winner for Manchester City against Manchester United on Sunday was incorrectly awarded.

The incident led to ProRef, the body responsible for referees in the Premier League and other English competitions, admitting there was an “error of judgement” and committing to a “review” of what took place.

But is one of the issues that the Premier League’s match officials on the field and in the VAR booth are relying on two different technology partners?

Unlike in other major competitions, such as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League, the Premier League does not rely solely on one supplier to provide its technology for both its VAR and semi-automated offside technology (SAOT).

England’s top flight has a separate deal with Genius Sports to oversee SAOT, while Hawk-Eye provides goal-line technology, as well as having an operator sitting next to the VAR official to operate the videos to bring up the various clips and angles.

The Genius Sports employee also works out of the VAR Hub at Stockley Park, although they sit in a different room and communicate with the VAR official through radio.

Following Sunday’s debacle, The Athletic answers the key questions regarding the technology being deployed in the Premier League…

What happened and why was it controversial?

A significant and costly error was made.

Michael Oliver, the on-pitch referee at Old Trafford, had initially disallowed Haaland’s goal for offside, with the striker appearing ahead of defender Patrick Dorgu and midfielder Enzo Fernandez lunging towards the cross from an offside position.

This decision was overturned by Matt Donohue, the VAR official. As can be seen below, Dorgu’s foot was playing Haaland onside.

However, this did not take into consideration the position of City midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who had dived in front of United defender Lisandro Martinez.

Michael Carrick, United’s head coach, described the decision to allow the goal to stand as “worrying”.

On Sunday evening, a spokesperson for ProRef said the VAR “did not recognise the likely impact of (Fernandez’s) position and should have recommended an on-field review”.

“The on-field decision was offside against Erling Haaland – that was checked by VAR and he was found to be in an onside position,” the statement read.

“In the same attack, it was established that Enzo Fernandez did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective, however, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.”

The spokesperson added that ProRef had been in touch with United to “acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement” and noted that “a review of the incident will take place”.

Why does the Premier League use two different systems for VAR?

Before appointing Genius Sports ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Premier League conducted a tender process, which allowed various companies to bid for the contract.

In that regard, Premier League sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say it is not a deliberate decision to have two different suppliers.

It is instead more about the Premier League choosing Genius Sports, following a tender process, to provide its SAOT over the Hawk-Eye system.

In a press release to announce the deal in August 2024, Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s former chief football officer, said they will be using the “newest and most accurate technology available”, adding that there will be a “consistent application of the offside lines”.

Does this make life more difficult for its referees?

“Whenever you enter into a check of any incident, you are conscious of time because, among the many complaints about VAR, the fact that it takes too long is always prominent,” Graham Scott, a former Premier League referee and a columnist for The Athletic, says.

“But the problem with having two systems is that you start with one system and have to check the incident, first using the usual replay cameras at full speed, but then you might start looking at a few quick slow-motion replays.

“If there’s an offside judgement, you then have to go to someone else who you can’t see.”

This person, Scott explains, is a Genius Sports employee, sitting in a different room next door.

“You can only hear their disembodied voice, and then you have to start looking at a different screen on which there is an enormous amount of information which you are trying to decode in the moment,” Scott continues.

The former Premier League official went on to explain that if it is a “very simple offside”, then the system is “slick, quick, and done pretty smartly”.

But if the offside call is tight, the process “takes that bit longer”, with Scott describing the use of two systems as “unnecessarily clunky”.

Are there plans to streamline it to one system?

As it stands, no.

Although it is unclear when the Premier League’s respective deals with Hawk-Eye and Genius Sports expire, it would appear unlikely for there to only be one supplier until at least one of those contracts runs out.

Speculatively, it could be an option to go to one supplier once one of the partnerships ends, as the onus would then be on the Premier League to re-assess the situation and potentially listen to alternative offers as opposed to simply renewing an existing deal.

Is it similar in other competitions?

The Premier League is an outlier — at least where the biggest competitions are concerned — by having two different technology providers feeding into their VAR process.

In both FIFA and UEFA competitions, they rely solely on Hawk-Eye.

What’s more, and this is a quirk of Adidas not being the Premier League’s official ball provider, is that they do not have access to a chip inside the ball, which feeds real-time ball-contact data into the VAR room to help officials make better and quicker decisions.

Adidas has a patent on the Connected Ball technology, meaning Puma, which replaced Nike as the Premier League’s ball provider ahead of the 2025-26 season, does not have the same technology.

Puma provides the Premier League’s balls, but does not have Adidas’ Connected Ball technology (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Was using one system a success during the World Cup?

Except for a high-profile incident during Switzerland’s group-stage match against Qatar on June 13, which centred on whether Remo Freuler was in an offside position before he was brought down by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada, the implementation of SAOT was seamless.

Such was FIFA’s attention to detail, world football’s governing body scanned every player competing in the tournament to create lifelike avatars in an attempt to ensure the most accurate offside decisions were taken.

“The World Cup was an absolute joy in relation to offside,” Scott added. “There wasn’t a single incident, bar Switzerland, where all the offside decisions weren’t reached quickly and within a matter of a few seconds.”