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We are only five rounds into the current A-League season and fans are already exasperated with the inconsistent and incompetent displays from the whistleblowers.
Last weekend, the A-League witnessed two referees interpret and apply the rules of the game in two completely different ways. Ben Williams in the match between Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar sent off Victory defender, Matt Foschini, after he deemed his reckless scything challenge on Thomas Broich as a red card offence.
The consensus among the football community considered Foschini’s indiscretion a yellow card offence and thought he was harshly done by. To make matters worse, Ben Williams did himself no favours by his aloof demeanour and incorrectly over-ruling the linesman on few occasions.
Meanwhile, over at the match between the Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory, Strebe Delovski confirmed his reputation for keeping his cards close to his chest when he refused to send off Glory hitman Shane Smeltz.
The consensus among the football community was that Smeltz should have been given a straight red card for his dangerous tackle with trailing leg on young Jet’s defender Taylor Regan. If that was not enough to send Smeltz off, Delovski was given another opportunity when an incensed Regan confronted Smeltz.
The two players clashed heads, with Smeltz also raising his hands to Regan’s head. Delovski intervened in his familiar low key style and diffused the situation by giving both players yellow cards.
Two referees with two different refereeing styles.
You can imagine what would’ve happened if they had traded matches on the weekend. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that Foschini would have stayed on and Smeltz would have walked off.
But the ramifications of these different interpretations are serious.
Foschini, courtesy of Victory’s “frivolous” appeal, has been suspended for 2 matches. Smeltz, on the other hand, will be lining up this Sunday against Sydney FC.
The two examples I have presented are examples where referees have seen a transgression and applied a punishment according to their interpretation of the rules of football.
This is the bread and butter of football arguments around the world. Every league in the world has their fair share of refereeing controversies.
But what A-League fans also need to consider and what the FFA should have promoted more explicitly at the start of the season are the key guidelines A-League referees must follow.
When Mark Shield was appointed the new FFA Director of Referees, only last September, it heralded a new era on the development and assessment of A-League referees.
It also saw the welcome return of match assessor at A-League grounds. You might find it hard to believe, but last season, all the match assessments where done by one man via video.
This season, A-League referees have been told to concentrate on Three Target Areas – Protecting player welfare, protecting the image of the game and better offside interpretation.
In regards to player safety, the key performance indicator for referees is to issue a red card when a player is deemed to have used excessive force or speed (with no consideration for intent) or was brutal in the tackle with little regard for player safety.
Referees are also expected to issue a red card when a player has used an elbow with force.
Over the last few days, Mark Shield has publicly defended Ben Williams in regards to his decision to send Foschini off for a dangerous tackle. According to him, Williams interpreted the rules of the game correctly and followed the guideline set in regards to player safety.
We can also deduce that, according to Strebre Delovski,the illegal tackle by Shane Smeltz on Taylor Regan did not fit the criteria to warrant a red card.
The match assessor and the newly appointed Elite Coach Video Match Reviewer, Barry Such, might see it differently.
Football fans and clubs have an innate ability to absorb the odd controversy or difference of interpretation like the Foschini incident, but what they have less patience for, and understandably so, are obvious errors.
The most important perception the FFA and Mark Shield will trying erase is the common refrain doing the rounds at the moment, “A-League Seven with A-League One referees”.
When it comes to protecting the image of the game the number one priority for Mark Shield will be reducing the already high number of embarrassing errors made by the officials this season.
Blunders like the obvious missed penalty in Melbourne Heart’s opening game of the season against Newcastle or Archie Thompson’s onside goal against Wellington, which along with the Great Wall of China could have been seen from the moon, are worryingly all too common at the moment.
And, the last thing we need is a repeat of Matthew Gillett’s unfortunate performance when he incredulously sent off two Wellington Phoenix players in Round 2. No wonder we have not seen him officiate an A-League since because he was not clearly up to the task and needs further development.
It’s not surprising then that fans who watch A-League games now think like Forrest Gump – where referees are like a box of chocolates and they don’t know what they are going to get.
But all they yearn for is a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate.
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