The Tackle: Why the A-League deserves better technology and refereeing
While the betting scandal dominated headlines, the grand finalists were set in the A-League. ROBBIE SLATER and MARCO MONTEVERDE share their likes and dislikes on the crazy week.
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Robbie Slater and Marco Monteverde go through their likes and dislikes from a massive week in the A-League with controversy and semi-final action dictating this week’s storyline.
DISLIKES
Betting scandal hurts Bulls and A-League
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Macarthur FC after the betting scandal that has rocked the A-League.
Much-maligned - and sometimes with good reason - since joining the competition in 2020, the Bulls worked hard this season to lift their profile.
They attracted their best-ever crowd attendance for a match, they performed well in the A-League and the AFC Cup under the guidance of a good coach and a nice bloke in Mile Sterjovski, and had slowly gained a better foothold in terms of recognition in south-west Sydney.
However, because of the stupid alleged actions of three of their players – captain Ulises Davila, Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis – and reportedly a fourth player, the Bulls season has been tainted, and the club as a whole doesn’t deserve that.
The A-League also doesn’t deserve such bad publicity after a season of already being too often in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
There are no excuses for what Davila, Baccus and Lewis have allegedly done in purposely getting yellow cards for money.
It’s nothing short of cheating.
By doing that they have affected the outcomes of games and seasons.
What happens if play hadn’t been stopped for the free-kicks, and subsequent yellow cards, that were given for the infringements? It might have led to different outcomes in games.
What about the accumulation of yellow cards that leads to players being suspended and missing matches? That also affects the outcome of a team’s season and how the A-League ladder might look.
There have been some people in our game that have complained that football has been given unfair coverage from this compared to different scandals in other codes.
However, that shouldn’t be even brought up in discussions about the matter.
Illegal betting is obviously a major problem in football when you consider some other incidents around the world, and unfortunately it’s now an issue that the A-League have to deal with because of the selfish alleged actions of these three Macarthur players.
Please be consistent
Is it too much to ask for some consistency from A-League referees?
Again, there were decisions made in the weekend’s two semi-final that left a lot of us scratching our heads.
Does anyone know what the handball rule is when it comes to awarding penalties? It doesn’t seem so.
The penalty awarded against Melbourne Victory’s Daniel Arzani for handball in Wellington shouldn’t have been a spot kick.
The ball hit his arm after deflecting off two other parts of his body. Doesn’t that mean that a penalty shouldn’t have been given according to what clubs were told at the start of the season?
Justice was done in the sense that Victory goalkeeper Paul Izzo saved the penalty taken by Phoenix skipper Alex Rufer, but it shouldn’t have got to that.
There was also a potential handball offence from Mariners defender Jacob Farrell in Saturday’s other semi-final that left Sydney FC fuming when a penalty wasn’t awarded.
It’s fair to say that penalties have been given this season for similar cases, even though Farrell’s arm was not in an unnatural position.
For what it’s worth, this column thinks referee Alireza Faghani was right not to award a spot kick in this instance, and thankfully the VAR didn’t get involved because there was not “clear and obvious” evidence that a mistake had been made.
However, why then did the VAR feel the need to call referee Daniel Elder to the sidelines to review footage of the ball hitting Arzani’s arm in Wellington when, again, it wasn’t “clear and obvious” that Elder had made an error in initially not pointing to the spot?
All that people are asking for is consistency in the decision-making process. Is it really that hard?
More cameras needed
The 50-50 decision to rule that Sydney FC striker Fabio Gomes was interfering with play in an offside position spared the A-League’s blushes on Saturday night for not having goal-line technology, or at very least a camera on the goal-line, to decide whether the ball had crossed the line from Robert Mak’s shot before it was cleared by Mariners defender Brian Kaltak.
The decision to rule that Gomes had interfered with Kaltak’s effort to get to the ball before it crossed the line was, in this column’s opinion, correct.
However, the question needs to be asked as to why there wasn’t at least a camera situated on the goal-line in such an important match?
Goal-line technology is obviously too expensive for the cash-strapped APL to afford, but there is no excuse for cameras not being on the goal-line.
The footage available did not conclusively identify whether the ball had crossed the line, so had the offside Gomes not been interfering with Kaltak, a contentious goal or non-goal could have affected the game’s outcome.
Can we please have cameras on each goal-line in this weekend’s grand final? Is that too much to ask for considering it’s the biggest game of the season.
Finger of frustration
Not to condone Mariners assistant coach Danny Schofield raising his middle finger after he was sent from the bench in Gosford, but we need to clarify that the gesture wasn’t directed at a television camera, and subsequently viewers at home.
The Mariners have been in contact to let us know that the frustrated Schofield was directing the deed at the Sydney FC bench due to some alleged comments being made
Regardless, Schofield shouldn’t have done it. He also should have kept up dissent after being shown an initial yellow card from referee Faghani for too much lip.
He’s now not going to be in the coaching dugout for the grand final, and he’s got no-one to blame but himself.
LIKES
Tired Mariners to lift again
The Mariners looked tired on Saturday night but there’s no doubt they will rise to the occasion in the grand final against the Victory.
They have come too far in already winning two trophies this season to not give it their all in this Saturday’s decider despite fatigue creeping in after a long campaign that has included many trips to Asia for AFC Cup commitments.
Spurred on by what’s sure to be another full house in Gosford, the Mariners have one last big effort in them.
The Victory - who showed on the weekend they can defy a packed crowd that’s against them in their effort to beat Wellington 2-1 - will make it tough for the Central Coast boys and will thrive in being underdogs.
The Melbourne club will always welcome the return of its French attacking weapon Zinedine Machach for the final now that he has served his two-game suspension.
Hopefully, it’s a fantastic end to the season
Credit must go to both Wellington and Sydney FC for their campaign.
The Phoenix will see it as an opportunity lost, having dominated for much of the season only to fall short in their bids to win both the premiership and the championship.
However, rookie coach Giancarlo Italiano exceeded all expectations in his first season in charge and the future remains bright for the Phoenix
The Sky Blues recovered well after a shaky start, with the appointment of coach Ufuk Talay just the change the Sydneysiders needed.
Who knows what might have happened had talisman Joe Lolley not suffered a season-ending hamstring injury earlier this month.
However, Talay has plenty to work with looking ahead to next season, and there’s little doubt his side will again be title contenders.
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Originally published as The Tackle: Why the A-League deserves better technology and refereeing
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