‘Absolutely disgraceful’: VAR slammed in heated Melbourne A-League derby
The video assistant referee (VAR) has again attracted criticism in the A-League, with Socceroos great Mark Bosnich describing the use of the technology as "absolutely disgraceful" following a contentious penalty in Saturday night's Melbourne derby.
Key points:
- Referee Kurt Ams gave City a contentious penalty after VAR consultation
- The VAR-awarded penalty helped City score a goal in their 2-1 win over Victory
- The controversy follows the VAR glitch in the Victory's grand final win last season
Melbourne City forward Bruno Fornaroli's 36th-minute tumble became a VAR-awarded penalty at Docklands and the goal that followed the spot kick proved enough to give his side a 2-1 win over Victory.
Referee Kurt Ams might not have intended to give a penalty when he gave a free kick for light contact by Victory defender Corey Brown on Fornaroli.
But having given the foul, Ams had to then award a spot kick when the video assistants, 700 kilometres away in a Sydney bunker, informed him the contact took place inside the box.
External Link: @ALeague tweets: #MelbDerby – Further explanation of the 39th minute VAR Review.
That talking point became a turning point when City equalised from a Ritchie de Laet's rebound following the spot kick, before Riley McGree struck a late winner in what was a heated local derby.
It also comes in the opening round of a fresh A-League season, which follows the embarrassing VAR blunder that marred the 2017/18 A-League grand final won by the Victory.
Bosnich railed against the decision with almost comedic hyperbole, calling for Ams to be stood down.
"It's an absolutely disgraceful decision. I'm sick of this," Bosnich said on Fox Sports.
"The reason why we've got the VAR is so that referees can have a re-look at it and realise it wasn't even a foul … if this is going to continue, they need to lose their job for a couple of weeks."
Victory coach Kevin Muscat took a more dignified approach after the match than he did remonstrating on the sideline at the time.
"I'll just go as far as saying it's not a foul," Muscat said.
"To concede the way we did, the time we did, if anything gave them some momentum. I didn't think we deserved that. Of course it had an influence on the game, but that's life."
City coach Warren Joyce put the outcome in perspective, recalling the technical failure of the video assistant in last season's grand final that cost Newcastle Jets the only goal of the match.
A major technical failure was behind the VAR controversy in Newcastle last May, which saw Victory's winning goal come from an offside position.
Football Federation Australia admitted the system was lost for 30 seconds in the lead-up to the goal.
"(Jets coach) Ernie Merrick was very philosophical, he mentioned sometimes they even themselves up," Joyce said.
"I thought it was a foul. But you're 50 yards away aren't you?
"I think we had more than our fair share of bad luck on VARs last season."
No-one in navy blue believed the incident was a foul, with Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas and Terry Antonis both agreeing with Muscat.
There was one crack from the City side, with debutant Kearyn Baccus suggesting there was not much in Brown's tackle.
"It's going to happen every week. It's human. People make mistakes. You've got to move on," he said.
The incident predictably lit up social media, with the VAR coming under intense scrutiny on Twitter.
External Link: @LucyZelic tweets: So much for learning from the mistakes of the past. What an absolute disgrace..and were only two games in. External Link: @BrentonSpeed tweets: AMS-ateurish refereeing. Fails to see Fornaroli “fouled” in area originally – and then with benefit of replay forgets to check if foul occurred. VAR did nothing wrong!
AAP/ABC
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