Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney said it was "baffling" VAR awarded Erling Haaland's winner in the Manchester derby.
The Norwegian's goal settled the game in City's favour. It was initially disallowed on field, but then the VAR Matt Donohue overturned it after determining Haaland was onside and Enzo Fernández had not made contact with the ball as he tried to head home from an offside position.
However, Pro Ref later admitted the VAR made an "error of judgement" in failing to send referee Michael Oliver to the monitor to review whether Fernández was interfering with play, as he appeared to be, with United defender Lisandro MartÃnez and goalkeeper Senne Lammens impacted by his attempt to play the ball.
Rooney said on BBC's Match of the Day 2: "I'm just so sick of this VAR, I think it's horrendous. It takes all the emotion off the game, the energy the game's played with, and to not see that and recognise Fernández is in an offside position ...
"Anyone who's played the game at any level understands that and knows that he's in an offside position...To get it so wrong, it's just baffling."
Pro Ref has contacted Manchester United over the incident.
Former Coventry and Cardiff forward Jay Bothroyd called for the officials to be reprimanded over the incident on Sky Sports News' Ref Watch programme, but when asked for his views on the consequences for the officials, ex-referee Dermot Gallagher said: "Well, it's in house, isn't it? I have to tell you, when I was a referee, and referees now, we actually beat ourselves up if we get something wrong.
- Manchester derby mess shows VAR's quest for perfection is doomed to fail
- 'Scrap VAR' - Peter Schmeichel calls for end of football 'annoyance' after Man United vs. Man City
"We are the worst enemies for ourselves. [This incident is] really unfortunate, but that's it. You can't change that. You can only change the present and the future. And you've got to learn from it."
Gallagher said the officials "lost focus", adding: "I think they've focused on one element of that law [whether Fernandez touched the ball] and that focus has diverted them away from the real thing."
Bothroyd said the officials had to be punished and called for ex-players to be involved in VAR decision-making.
"Players make mistakes, right? And they get reprimanded. Officials need to do the same thing. There needs to be some kind of punishment for officials as well, because saying I'm sorry is just not good enough," he said.
"[Manchester United head coach] Michael Carrick's under pressure now. He's under pressure now, so he could lose his job because of them making a bad decision.
"I know for absolute certain, any player that's played at any level that is looking at that today or when the game was happening will be saying, 'Enzo Fernández is definitely interfering with play.'"
