Brisbane Roar coach Frans Thijssen faces a possible fine or suspension after Football Federation Australia cited him for criticising the abandonment of Sunday’s clash with Wellington Phoenix.
The Phoenix won 2-1, but the match was abandoned in the 73rd minute due to incessant rain, which waterlogged the Suncorp Stadium pitch.
Under A-League regulations, any match that is called off in the first half must be replayed, but if it’s called off during the second half, the score at the time is allowed to stand as the final result.
A seething Thijssen hit out at his post-match news conference, saying the rule was “crazy” and not in the spirit of “honest competition”, and questioned why the abandonment took place just as the Roar were preparing to take a free kick from scoring distance.
“If you’ve always worked in Europe and you see this happening … I’ve never seen this,” he said.
“Adelaide and Perth, they’re not happy with this … we are in a competition to go to the playoffs.
“We have a free kick in a dangerous position where we can score, then they just call off the game and give three points to one team and no points to (the other) team.
“That’s not an honest competition.”
Thijssen has been asked by FFA to explain his comments by 5pm on April 1.
In the same news conference, Thijssen also slammed FFA’s policy of not halting the A-League for international breaks.
Brisbane faced Western Sydney Wanderers on Wednesday night and with four key players unavailable due to national team commitments and four others ruled out through injury, they were smashed 4-1.
With their defensive stocks particularly hit hard, Thijssen chose to use linchpin Luke Brattan and left-back Shane Stefanutto as makeshift centre-backs – a move that backfired badly, as the Roar missed Brattan’s drive through midfield and surrendered control of the contest to the visitors.
Damningly, Brisbane have conceded a whopping 14 goals in their past four outings.
Thijssen appears to have little choice but to field the same disjointed defence after conceding none of his eight missing regulars will be available for Saturday’s season-defining A-League clash with Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
But he rejected claims his deployment of Brattan in defence against the Wanderers was a gamble.
“(It wasn’t) really a gamble. He’s always good in the building up,” he said.
“It’s not only one position. It’s more positions you have to change – that’s what we had to sort out (and there were) not many options, of course.”
Thijssen did have youth team defender Lachlan Jackson on the bench but did not use him, with the teenage stopper looming as the Roar’s only alternative at the back this weekend.
City sit five points ahead of Brisbane in sixth spot, although the Roar have one game in hand.
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