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A “technical failure” with the video assistant referee (VAR) stopped the controversial technology from disallowing the goal that decided Saturday night’s A-League grand final.
A review by Football Federation Australia has found the VAR on duty, Craig Zetter, did not have access to the camera angles required to catch a blatant offside in the process of Kosta Barbarouses’s ninth-minute goal that gave Melbourne Victory their 1-0 win over Newcastle to claim the championship.
Social media went into meltdown when replays showed James Donachie had drifted the wrong side of the last Jets player, with Johnny Warren medallist Adrian Mierzejewski and former Perth Glory coach Kenny Lowe leading the outrage.
A-League chief Greg O’Rourke issued a statement on Sunday morning to reveal Hawkeye had a “malfunction of software” that meant the VAR system was partially lost 30 seconds before Victory’s goal.
It was not restored until “some minutes” after the goal at which point O’Rourke said it was too late to overturn the goal.
“We are extremely disappointed at this failure of the VAR technology and we understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans,” O’Rourke said.
“VAR was introduced here and in other parts of the world as a technology based solution to correct the human errors that inevitably are made from time to time when officials are making judgments in split seconds.
“On this occasion the technology itself failed and the broadcast angles required were unavailable.
“We are working with Hawkeye to thoroughly understand why it did and what can be done to prevent this happening again.
“Whilst we understand that this happened only once this season it was at a most critical time.
“All parties desire the technology to be failure proof and that is what we will be striving for.”
After the match Jets coach Ernie Merrick made it clear he didn’t agree with the decision that stood.
“It looked to me like there were three players offside,” he said.
“I don’t want to be a sore loser but if that goal was offside I just wonder what the point of the VAR is.”
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