Ernie Merrick watched, face somehow greyer than normal, as Gui Finkler was kicked around all match.
Nine fouls were inflicted on the Brazilian alone before a booking was issued to Melbourne City, including a rather thuggish hack from Fernando Brandán, after which the City attacker smirked and winked at the Wellington bench, trotting away with a slap on the wrist.
The reluctance to dissuade the constant fouling on Finkler was just one of the questionable decisions made by referee Kurt Ams, an official who – until this season – hasn’t been an active A-League referee since the 2010-11 campaign.
As Melbourne City rested Bruce Kamau, Manny Muscat and Tim Cahill – all started on the bench – the true depth of their squad came into view. City-lite were, just about, the best team in the contest, although the way they drolly strolled toward the final whistle invited the sort of late equalising concession about which they have appeared unconcerned so often this season.
A number of City games have ended in an unnecessarily nervy manner; the late equaliser they conceded against the Wanderers a few weeks ago is an example of this slackness – arrogance, even – coming back to bite them.
As it happened, in this match no such equaliser occurred, and the highly questionable penalty that Ams awarded City in the second half saw them take a clear stride into second position on the table.
Cue the hysterical conspiracy theorists, barking out their anti-City narrative, accusing the league of coddling their star outfit. As much alleged evidence as these wild-eyed handwringers claim they have, this match was simply not part of it; the refereeing was generally terrible, and hurt both teams. The Phoenix were awarded a very generous penalty of their own, after Kosta Barbarouses tumbled theatrically in the box, one eye on the referee as he fell.
But when Bruno Fornaroli and Marco Rossi were engaging in some regulation handbags inside the penalty area, tussling under a floated cross, Ams again puffed the cheeks and shrilly awarded the decisive spot kick. It looked as though the levering motion that threw Fornaroli to the ground was as much instigated by his attempted bicycle kick as it was Rossi’s grappling, and both players had clenched fistfuls of opposition shirt.
There wasn’t really enough time to see whether Ams would hold similar grappling that might have subsequently occurred in the City box to the same legal standard, as the match was already in its final quarter. Needless to say, Merrick was despairing after the match:
“Bruno’s penalty claim – he’s got hold of the shirt of Marco Rossi and then he goes for an overhead kick and nearly kicks Marco in the face. He misses the ball and pulls Marco down on top of him, Marco gets a yellow card, and they get a penalty.
“I think when the video referees come in those situations will resolve themselves so much better. I can’t wait for that actually.
“We have got to have video refereeing. It’s been proven to be much more accurate in every other professional game. We need it, we need it now.”
Of course, the incident which inspired these pleas would not have been untangled and made clear by looking at it again in a replay bunker. That Ams judged Rossi’s action as an illegal one was just that; a judgement, steeped in his own personal definitions of what is and isn’t acceptable contact in a contact sport. Of course, the fact that these encounters happen throughout matches and normally go unnoticed by the officials casts the call into an illegitimate light, but no replay could feasibly overturn it. Merrick’s words were bathed in the agony of a losing manager, grasping desperately for something to cling to for comfort.
But, as useless as it would have been for the Phoenix on Sunday, video referees might have offered manna from heaven to poor Kerem Bulut two weeks ago. His extended erroneous celebration would even have given the video official a veritable eternity of thinking time. Bulut – and all the other players whose strikes have been wrongly chalked off for offside – would have been awarded the goal after a negligible pause.
As much as linesmen and women execute their trying task with near-superhuman levels of accuracy, a video camera is actually purpose-built to do their job better, seeing two actions occur, spread a great distance apart, at the same time with perfect clarity. Rarely are offsides inconclusive upon further, scrutinised review. If only to avoid soul-crushingly cringe-worthy moments like Bulut’s, this should really be thought seriously about.
The problem with video referees are that they shine no light on the rules in football in which certain, unknowable amounts of intention are involved. Handballs must be deliberate to be fouls. There is a horridly fuzzy line separating a dive, and what might generously be called evasive action.
Attempted kicks are considered as illegal as actual kicks landed on flesh and bone. No referee actually enforces the rule that advises a player that uses offensive or abusive language be sent off, and any lip-reader – professional or armchair – can attest to the sort of language players frequently spray in the referee’s direction, or each others.
What happens, pray tell, if the ground and video officials happen to disagree on what constitutes “excessive” force? This – as much as the potential for staccato disruptions of our beautiful, flowing game – is a hugely valid concern.
It would have to be a subtle creep, starting with things like offsides, for the transition to occur. Football is the world’s game, played in beautiful graphic-designed space-theatres, and ramshackle favela glory-bowls. Not all venues would be equipped to offer replay-based interventions. The sport is only now just getting to grips with goal-line technology.
It’s clear that football is hardly the bastion of enthusiastic technological reform so, as Merrick calls hoarsely for action now, perhaps he shouldn’t hold his breath.
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