Referees boss Strebre Delovski has admitted that the men in charge of the game between Adelaide United and Central Coast Mariners made errors in judgement during the course of the encounter, which ultimately changed the outcome of the game.
The result was a 3-2 victory to the Reds through three spot kicks that were expertly converted by striker Tomi Juric. But the main talking points were the decisions to award the penalties, with particular focus being drawn to the antics of the home side skipper Stefan Mauk in the lead up to the referee pointing to the spot.
The first one, awarded a little after 30 minutes, saw the Reds’ captain go down having initiated limited contact with defender Ruon Tongyik in the area. Another controversial decision to point to the spot on the other side of the break took place when Mauk went down tugging the arm of Josh Nisbet, leaving the pint-sized midfielder visibly stunned by the decision.
While Daniel Da Silva and substitute Alou Kuol had given the Mariners the lead on two occasions, the two dubious decisions ended up with the travellers being pegged back to level terms.
Things got a lot worse for the visitors when a handball decision went against them for Juric to score a hat-trick as he converted a third spot-kick.
Now Delovski has admitted that the first two dubious decisions to point to the spot were incorrect, and intends to take measures to correct the error made by the officials.
“It’s important to come out and people to understand where we’re coming from – we got it wrong, we made an error and we’re human,” he said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ll coach the referees through that and we want to see the improvement there. Apart from one or two decisions this year, we’ve been good.”
A lot has already been said about the quality of VAR during the course of this season, as Western United manager Mark Rudan previously insisted that the number of cameras used had decreased in the 2020-21 edition of the A-League following a controversial 0-0 draw with Melbourne Victory.
While Rudan’s comments concerning video assistance drew some calls for it to be removed from the competition, Australian Professional Leagues (APL) commissioner Greg O’Rourke believes that the technology should instead be honed as opposed to being disposed of.
The APL commissioner did, however, admit that at least one decision was incorrect during the game between Adelaide and Central Coast, but maintained that the third spot kick awarded was the right decision given the current landscape of football law.
“The issues regarding hand ball are different because they are subject to the laws of the game so referees must follow them,” ORourke said, according to SBS The World Game.
“For example the third penalty awarded for ‘hands’ on Friday night was a penalty under the laws of the game but the other two were subject to the interpretation of the referee as to the level of contact.
“But the referees got it wrong in at least one of those two penalty decisions.
“VAR should not be thrown out because of this and we should not put ourselves in a position of not allowing ourselves to be supported by technology when every other part of every day life is.”
