A-League to think again on VAR after grand final failure

The video referee malfunctioned for 2½ minutes. That’s when Kosta Barbarouses scored an offside goal to win the grand final.

Kosta Barbarouses scores against Newcastle Jets on Saturday night. Picture: Getty Images

The future of the video assistant referee in the A-League could come into question with Football Federation Australia expected to look closely at the system as a result of Melbourne Victory’s controversial 1-0 win over the Newcastle Jets in the grand final at McDonald Jones on Saturday night.

One of the biggest stories in Australian soccer for some time emerged yesterday after FFA admitted that a technical glitch resulted in Victory’s goal in the biggest and most important game of the season being wrongly awarded despite clear evidence at least three players were offside.

The head body initiated a quick review of the events of Saturday night following an uproar over the VAR’s failure to overturn Kosta Barbarouses’ ninth-minute goal, which ultimately decided the outcome of the grand final.

FFA issued a statement yesterday morning in which it said “a technical failure in the system” meant Craig Zetter, who was in charge of VAR for the game, did not have access to the camera views that would have enabled him to make an offside ruling.

A-League boss Greg O’Rourke said that, according to technology partner Hawkeye, “the capture software that uploads the broadcast feed into the VAR system was partially lost 30 seconds before Victory’s goal due to a malfunction of software”.

“It was not until some minutes after the goal that this was restored, too late to change the decision on the goal as the game had restarted,” O’Rourke said.

The A-League was the first domestic football league in the world to introduce the controversial VAR system when it used it for a game between Melbourne City and Adelaide United in round 26 last season.

It was introduced on a full-time basis for this season but has not been well received by fans amid a series of issues including the length of time needed to make decisions, contentious outcomes and claims it was being used to re-referee games especially in cases of red cards.

As a result, the A-League was forced to refine things on the run to quicken the process.

Still, the latest drama will only serve to harden the view of many fans and commentators who feel the game is better off without the VAR.

Whether FFA will get rid of it remains to be seen, especially given world governing body FIFA has introduced it for the World Cup finals next month. The football world is holding its collective breath on that one.

O’Rourke admitted his preference was that the VAR should stay but he would not commit to it when quizzed by The Australian yesterday.

“To be honest, it is too raw for me to be making those sorts of decisions today,” O’Rourke said. “If we do stick with VAR — and that is my first thought — then we have to make sure we eliminate the chances of a network failure. We can’t have this happening again.”

O’Rourke stopped short of apologising for the events of Saturday night but said he could understand the disappointment of the Newcastle fans.

“We are extremely disappointed at this failure of the VAR technology,” he said, “And we understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans.

“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.

“We are working with Hawkeye to thoroughly understand what happened, why and what can be done to prevent this happening again.

“This has not happened in 140 games, then it happens for 2½ minutes, and 25 seconds into the crash, a contentious goal is scored. The odds of that are ridiculous.”

O’Rourke said the VAR, referee Jarred Gillett and the assistant referee had been in dialogue at the time of the incident but because there was no camera angle available, the decision to award the goal stood.

Despite the huge disappointment in losing that way, Newcastle chief Lawrie McKinna said the Jets would cop the decision on the chin. He understands there is no recourse for a replay.

“I have suggested a replay and I’ll guarantee we would get another 30,000 next week, but that is tongue in cheek and I know the rules and regulations don’t allow it,” McKinna told The Australian.

“The game is done and we will cop it with dignity.”