“Stop the rot” read the banner from The Den – except you didn’t see it because Football Federation Australia denied a request to unfurl it at Suncorp Stadium for being “political”.
The Den then released a statement which read in part: “This is to show our concern at FFA’s lack of direction towards club football, state of the A-League and it’s (sic) clubs” – and, of course, the fact that the FFA effectively banned the banner meant it was shared widely across social media anyway.
But perhaps it’s a good thing if we don’t discuss the issue of the FFA deciding which banners can and can’t be displayed inside A-League venues, because it gives us more time to discuss how the trial of Video Assistant Referees is going.
Not well, it’s safe to say. And anyone who thinks it’s not having a negative impact on the A-League needs only to look at the scenes in Gosford on Saturday night for an obvious dose of reality.
“If you came to this game tonight and you left here no longer in love with football, who could blame you?” Mariners coach Paul Okon said of the farcical scenes which saw Wout Brama and Jake McGing inexplicably red-carded in the 2-0 defeat to the Wanderers, following intervention from the VAR.
“I think it’s probably what everyone is talking about and that’s not the reason why people are turning up watching – it’s not why we turn up to play and coach.”
But it is the reason some Mariners fans headed for the exits early on the back of some baffling decisions that left everyone confused.
Of the two decisions, perhaps Brama technically deserved to be dismissed – even if that type of challenge routinely goes unpunished and prompted Wanderers defender Michael Thwaite to tell referee Alex King to simply “get on with the game”.
But the decision to upgrade McGing’s yellow card to a red was an obvious error, and coming on the back of the VAR’s controversial decision to award the Newcastle Jets a late penalty in their earlier 2-1 win over Adelaide United, it prompted howls of protest – and a response from Head of the A-League, Greg O’Rourke.
“We accept that issues related to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) are currently taking focus off the football and needs to be much better,” O’Rourke said in a statement on Sunday morning.
(Image: Twitter/FFA)
“We are rightfully impatient as a sport to see this perfected much quicker and that is our aim as well. We will make some more changes to the way we approach the use of VAR in time for the next round,” he added.
But pretty soon the VAR was up to its old tricks in Melbourne Victory’s 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar on Sunday night.
The home fans booed loudly before kick-off when a message flashed up on the big screen stating that the VAR would be in use, but it was the Roar who twice benefited from questionable decisions.
The first was following Massimo Maccarone’s superb 56th-minute finish – the Italian would be one of the deadliest strikers in the A-League, if only his teammates could find him – when it looked like Maccarone was marginally offside.
The second was the late Besart Berisha goal harshly chalked off for a handball, to the delight of the Roar faithful who didn’t have much else to cheer on the night.
We can argue about the merits of both decisions now that we’ve had time to analyse them, but watching live inside the stadium, it was utterly unclear what was actually going on with the VAR.
That’s the crux of the problem. Instead of making things clearer, the VAR has only added confusion.
And unless the FFA finds a way to rapidly regain control of the narrative, we won’t be talking about who played the best football at the end of the season.
We’ll be talking about how many games were ruined by the VAR.
Fadida
Guest
Agree
punter
Guest
Can we also stop referring VAR as an A-League thing. This is not just A-League thing, this is an FIFA implementation thing.
punter
Guest
It's not a chip mate, football does rule the sporting world. Even Mr Mudoch said when selling his entertainment arm to Disney, I'm keeping the news & sport, sport and football is huge.
Nemesis
Guest
That's not how it works in the commercial & adult world. There are some things that might be illegal - discriminating against allowing people from entry based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, etc. - but even that seems a grey area. There are bars that seem to discriminate against the straight community; clubs that discriminate against gender, etc.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Any restrictions you want? Really? I ban all persons wearing blue undies from my ground. If it isn't offensive language (including racism etc) then people should have a right to free speech!
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
At least the NRL rates on TV. What Grobelaar is saying is that HAL crowds and TV Ratings are both poor. Doesn't seem to fit the chip-on-the-shoulder soccer fan's we have a right to rule the world position!
Cool N Cold
Guest
VR, video replay/review is just a device while VAR, "video assisted referee", is a human using a device. VR is like a tool. Depending on how good the user is, a tool can make good or bad. A good carpenter can do better with a good tool while a bad carpenter cannot. If the VAR makes worse decision, it is not the technology to be blamed. It is the referee in use of the VR to be blamed. How can a referee judge worse with replay? FFA should report back to FIFA that a country should not adopt VAR should the country has not got a population of good referees.
Brendo51
Roar Pro
I will make one more point about number 1 Goal Review. Currently we have two linesman whose major role with officating the game is to adjudicate whether a player is offside at the time a pass was made to them. Currently these refs are very conservative in that officiating as the consequence of getting it wrong is large. Often Linesman will err on the side of the defender (even though the rules suggest if its close it should favour the attacker) when its close. Over time I would suggest this would change if their every decision was to be reviewed. Linesman would become more comfortable with letting the game go on the close ones as they know the VAR review would pick up any errors. This would further lead to more goals being overturned. Of course the decisions would be more accurate but the game experience would suffer greatly, as others have said one of the great parts of football is the goal celebration. If you are worried every time you score it might be overturned I fear its going to destroy a big part of our game.
Brendo51
Roar Pro
Nem Yes I am willing to live with Ref's missing things. To be honest it more the phamton calls that drive me mad, when they see things that are not really there. So the only difference between us is you would keep Offisde and Build up play fouls in the goal review. I would live with that as long as they make it clearer what constitutes "Phase Of Play". They also need to speed up the decision and make it clearer at the ground why a goal has been reversed.
Brendo51
Roar Pro
1. Where Goal Line technology IS in place then I don't think there is a need for a Goal Review. 2. Very few, but I think Football has a issue within some countries around players deliberately diving. I am not talking about going down under soft contact, I am talking about the ones that when the replay is shown it is clear that no contact was made by the defender. Or the handball call where the replay clearly shows that no contact was made with the arm. Penalties in our game make a huge difference, to remove the howlers would be a good thing and it would help remove players balantly diving for a penalty. 3. Play shouldn't be stopped by the VAR. Ref's on the field do sometimes need to issue RED to keep the game under control. Sometimes they do so incorrectly when they make a howler. Any doubt though it should be left to the Ref on the field. This would also remove the issue we have today with BoBo, as the VAR would have no authority to issue a RED, a missed infringement by the on field Ref could be deal with by a Match Review Committee. 4. Why, if done right you would barely notice VAR in these circumstances. ref would simply walk over to the players concerned at the next break of play and tell them there was a case of mitken identify and the card was being transfer from player Y to Player x, at the same time the scoreboard just displays some tect to that affect. What we have to remove is the 2 min wait why the refs sort it out. To be clear I would estimate that VAR should be intervening one or twice per season, not 2-3 times per round!
Nemesis
Guest
That's what the FoxSp commentators said in the week after the incident I described at SYD vs WEL. Listening to Streb Delovski on "the ALeague Hour" last night, he said: VAR reviews all incidents of the game that fall withing the "4 types of incidents" that fall within VAR remit. So, based on this particular statement, I would conclude: Every goal is reviewed. Every clash in the box is reviewed. Every card decision is reviewed. Presumably every clash outside the box is reviewed since, potentially, every time 2 players collide with each other there is the possibility it amounts to violent conduct, or dangerous play. Hence, for close offside calls, it's not VAR working in tandem with ref. Rather, if a goal is scored, the VAR will review so the offside will be spotted. If no goal is scored, VAR doesn't review anything and any incorrect offside has no impact.
Nemesis
Guest
If you want to display banners at a stadium, the stadium has full authority - & I stand with them on this - to place whatever restrictions they want on people entering their premises. Just like you can place whatever restrictions you wish on people entering your premises. If you want to get a message across & spread widely, I suggest intelligent use of social media is the best platform, rather than holding up a banner at a Roar game played at an empty Suncorp Stadium.
Nemesis
Guest
Papaodopouos's act of pure low-life filth would've been caught by the camera & sanctioned by the MRP. As can all offences that the referee does not see.
Fadida
Guest
Can we stop referring to VAR as an "it? There is no robot making perfect decisions. It's the same flawed humans who make mistakes in the middle each week
Fadida
Guest
Agree
Fadida
Guest
That is actually pretty funny
Fadida
Guest
Ginger Wan&dr more like
Fadida
Guest
Agree 100000000%
Squizz
Guest
It certainly looked like Thwaite was pissed off and seemed to lead the way in that regard.
Squizz
Guest
First of all I will declare as a Mariners supporter. This has nothing to do with the result WSW took there chances and were 2 - 0 before any of this happened. 'WSW overcome a 9 man Mariners' is not a fair headline for WSW - they were clearly the more clinical team and deserved their win. I agree with your characterization of both reds Post_hoc, However, my issue is the consistency. Why were those two looked at and reviewed and others ignored. Santalab's tackle on Brama was way worse than McGing's tackle (though I think a yellow was suffice) and Llorente's tackle was a definite red. Why were those yellows not reviewed along with Risdon's elbow on Liam Rose. Do I want them reviewed - no!!! I just want the VAR gone. I can live with a referee making a mistake. In fact that in many ways in a low scoring game is what adds to the passion you feel. The VAR just kills the passion in the game.