A furious Graham Arnold has slammed World Cup referee Ben Williams after his Sydney FC side’s exit from the FFA Cup to Adelaide United on Tuesday night.
Two goals from Bruce Djite sealed a 3-1 win in extra time to book a semi-final spot after the Sky Blues had central defender Nikola Petkovic sent off for a high tackle on Fabio Ferreira three minutes from time.
Arnold labelled the decision an “embarrassment” to a TV camera from the sideline during the game after Williams decided to stop the fixture and only brandish the red card after an Adelaide attack had broken down.
“I feel for the fans and the viewers and most of all I feel sorry for the players,” Arnold said.
“I made my feelings known in the emotion of the game.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a red card given after play on … they both get up and chased the ball.”
Adelaide coach Josep Gombau refused to comment on the performance of the officials but said Fabio had a “large contusion” on his inner thigh following the incident.
Arnold said the incident effectively determined the result of the match.
“I am proud of the effort … I wasn’t too happy with the first half but we dominated after … we would have won the game in 90 minutes with 11 men,” Arnold said.
Sydney will appeal to the FFA match review panel (MRP) over the red card with the Serbian stopper set to miss Friday’s A-League clash with Brisbane on Friday if the decision is upheld.
Arnold made seven changes from the side that beat Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday including Sasa Ognenovski who was suspended just six hours before the game by the MRP after his swipe to the back of the head on Vitor Saba during that game.
The decision went unpunished at the time and Arnold hopes the club’s appeal will be heard and acted upon as swiftly as Ognenovski’s fate was decided.
“They got together quickly to suspend Sasa … we’ve got a game on Friday and you’d hope if they overturn it they’d do it quickly,” he said.
Gombau said he was pleased with his side’s performance but played down their positive start to the season which has seen them take four points from their first two A-League games and reach the last four stage of the FFA Cup.
“It’s early days. It’s not how you start it’s how you finish,” he said.
Sm6
Guest
RBB Anonymous Seriously,how long have you followed football and have you ever played at a reasonable level? Even your commentators,even commentators that lean towards the red & black seem to have disagreed with you.
Wainscoting
Guest
Sorry, was just stirring the pot a bit Kasey. Certainly do concur in the assertion that Ben Williams is indiscriminately woeful. Adelaide deserved that win as much as the next man and regardless I'm always happy to see Sydney go down. :D I'll have to watch the keeper handball again I suppose; thought a red would have been a harsh call at the time.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Apparently Williams has been dropped for his gaffe but punishment for Petkovic stays in place -interesting times we live in lol
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
It was an interesting game to watch. The commentary and punditry was rather sky blue though.
Punter
Guest
I will rank it for you Madmonk. 1. Saba was late & dangerous, straight red. 2. Antonis was late & high but not dangerous, if last man a red, if not a yellow 3. Petkovic, Nothing in it, maybe a yellow for both players. I agree with Fuss, the tackle by Gamerio was as bad as Saba & that was a straight red.
Kasey
Guest
Not sure how you think he's a bit fond of Adelaide. I actually think he's too incompetent to be consistently biased towards or against a particular team. As for getting the rub of the green last night? No matter which sport, my teams never seem to get it so I'm not sure how to react at the accusation that AU were favoured last night. We've been dealt with rather poorly in at least one GF so maybe it's the football Gods playing square up? I don't know? I'm very happy to have made it through to the last 4 of the FFA Cup. I still wonder if our defence is not solid enough to win a trophy, but hey, you've got to be in it to win it and by geez by jingo by crickey, we're still in it:) COYR!
Rob Gremio
Roar Pro
it is if a Goalkeeper does it while denying a goalscoring opportunity
Bondy
Guest
Fuss On my assessment of form Sydney weren't going to come out on top anyway, Arnie's whinging continues even at the Mariners I thought he was an excessive whinger. Winning the FFA Cup is vital for a Gaffa its very important it gives them extra time when things aren't going so well for the club and of course adds to the CV . Also at least Syd FC appear to be playing a more organised and fluent game under Arnold's tutelage this year ....
madmonk
Guest
I have a theory on Williams, He is our senior AFC ref. I assume the expectations at international level particularly in Asia is to be a lot tougher on fouls. He needs to ref to that standard for his career (and I have no issue with that). We often see this in ACL games and in Socceroo games, where not always but often you see Australian players frustrated with the refereeing for what they perceive to be soft fouls. This type of refereeing runs foul of the Fox commentarial who have generally played in leagues (and at times) when a lot more was let go (slater is the bulldog after all). That is also more in keeping with historical Australian football culture. I hate to call it the Anglo influence but also some of the European influence. By comparison you still get the same commentary in the EPL where Danny Mills (now what a player he was!!) still has a crack at the foreigners who go down to easily (as if it still 1978).
madmonk
Guest
I am no wanderers fan, but I would love someone to ask Arnie to rank, Saba's foul, Petcovic's and Antonis on Jeggo. Saba's was late but it was the trailing foot that caught the player's foot, a yellow would have ben fine, Petcovic could have been yellow or red but it did not warrant Bozza or Slater's spray (no surprises there) and I thought Antonis's was the worst, late and high to a player at full tilt, it was dangerous.
Gareth
Guest
Part of me really likes for the changes he's made at SFC this year and the clear passion he has for the club, but I'm a little embarrassed by Arnie's behaviour atm. Initially I was really annoyed with the card happy Ben Williams but in the end a red may be justified, if only marginally.
madmonk
Guest
A handball outside the box that denies a clear goal scoring opportunity is a red card.
P.Marlowe
Guest
Langou - as someone who plays over 35s football and observed some really ordinary behaviour towards the men in black (who are giving up their own Friday nights to do this job), I agree that there needs to be a tough line on abuse of refs. The game at amateur level cannot exist without them. As a Roar supporter and a big Matty McKay fan, I was disappointed with the way McKay reacted last week - he should know better than that. That said, I find Williams to be so arbitrary in what he calls for fouls and what he lets go - its like a lottery sometimes.
Justin Mahon
Roar Rookie
Yep, at speed given the studs were up AND high a finding by FFA of "obvious error" is very unlikely. The decision was an error, but not an obvious one.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Does anyone know what's in place at the moment?
langou
Roar Guru
We all agree with you James that in order to compete on the world stage we need strikers that are clinical finishers. Trying to find them is the issue.
jamesb
Guest
Then how are we going to compete on the world stage if we have strikers that are going to be wasteful in front of goal?. At least someone that's clinical like Cahill. Yet he is not even a striker!
langou
Roar Guru
As someone who has been President of an amateur football club and struggled with a shortage of referees I hope the FFA come down hard on the abuse of refs.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I actually thought the worst decision of the match was the GK handling the ball outside the area. With so many officials on the field, it's disappointing they all missed it. The dodgy red card only piled on the controversy.
Midfielder
Guest
Will he get a fine from FFA...