A-League chief says VAR here to stay, calls for full-time referees

The head of the A-League believes the VAR system is working appropriately but wants more full-time referees.

Referee Kurt Ams gestures during the round one A-League match between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Getty Images

The head of the A-League believes the VAR system is working appropriately but wants more full-time referees to keep pace with the sport.

“The VAR has been rolled out worldwide so it’s not going anywhere,” A-League head Greg O’Rourke told SEN radio yesterday.

VAR controversies dominated the wash-up of the A-League’s opening round. O’Rourke said the “system failed” in last season’s grand final when the only goal of the match, scored by Melbourne Victory’s Kosta Barbarouses against Newcastle, came when technology failed to identify an offside in the build-up. “But the system now is working as designed,” O’Rourke said.

“If you take the Mariners v Roar game, there were three interventions by the VAR. All three of those were for offside, all three of those were correct but they still get caught up in this conversation.

“In the Melbourne derby, that was not VAR’s intervention, that was the referee making the ­mistake.”

A contentious penalty was awarded to Melbourne City in their 2-1 win against Victory when the referee sought video assistance to determine whether a foul had been committed in the box.

But O’Rourke said rather than focus on VAR, there was a need to find funding for more full-time referees in the A-League to consistently get calls correct.

“All our players train six days a week, one or two sessions a day,” he said. “We have some referees that have full-time jobs and then we’re asking them to back up on the weekend.

“I think the question has to be do we need some more full-time referees to stick with the pace and with the focus that is required in full-time sport.”

Sydney FC veteran Alex Wilkinson, a supporter of VAR, said players and the public needed more education on the system.

“The public as well are a little bit confused when (VAR is) being used and how it’s being used,” Wilkinson said yesterday.

“So maybe the explanation needs to go out to the public so they do understand when it can and can’t be used.

“I still believe the VAR is a good thing. It’s there in big games and big moments to make sure there’s no errors and I guess they are still sort of tweaking how we use it.”

Meanwhile, Wilkinson has given the SCG surface a tick of approval and declared the Sky Blues have a mental edge going into Saturday’s derby with Western Sydney Wanderers.

He expects a special atmosphere for the first A-League match at the famous ground.

The SCG hasn’t been used for a soccer game for three decades and will host four Sydney FC matches this season.

“We’re looking forward to being at the SCG. We had a run there last week and the pitch is beautiful, it’s fantastic,” Wilkinson said. “I’m really looking forward to getting 30,000-plus there for the derby and really experiencing that atmosphere.”

Western Sydney coach Markus Babbel yesterday said he found pre-season criticism of his team amusing, and he hoped it wouldn’t be long before the doubters were silenced.

The Wanderers were widely tipped to miss out on the finals this season, and they did little to change that opinion with a horrible first-half display against Perth Glory on Sunday.

But the Wanderers shot to life in the second half, and could have grabbed all three points if not for Oriol Riera’s close-range miss in the 75th minute.

Babbel, a former German international, was thrilled with his team’s second-half display.

“They can say whatever they want,” Babbel said of the critics.

“The club is fantastic. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to go somewhere. I believe the club can go to a different stage.”

AAP