SBS to the rescue in Optus Cup slip

OPTUS’S World Cup gamble has turned into an own goal, with SBS screening games for the next two days as the telco scrambles to fix problems that have infuriated fans.

Football lovers across the nation have been left tearing their hair out after paying for the Optus Sport streaming package only to be frustrated by error messages, interruptions and buffering, leading to many labelling the telco “Floptus”.

Last night, Optus boss Allen Lew said all games until tomorrow morning would also be aired on SBS to offer viewers “a fail-safe back-up”.

He said “a dedicated team” had been working around the clock to fix technical issues.

“We will use the fact that we have two nights where the games will simulcast on freeto-air to test the solutions robustly,” he said.

Punters paid $14.99 for what was supposed to be uninterrupted coverage of each of the 64 games in Russia but so far, they’ve seen more frozen screens than fabulous goals.

Mr Lew said that “we have not done a proper job over the weekend” and the huge demand for World Cup action was “no reason for us to make the mistakes that we have and we apologise for that”.

The embarrassing move to put the games on free-to-air TV came after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called Mr Lew “to seek his assurances that the failure in the streaming service has been rectified”.

Optus has been forced to tell customers to log on to the FIFA World Cup app with their Optus Sport details to work around the problem. It also offered free Fetch set-top boxes — but in another backfire for the company, stores soon ran out.

SBS had the rights to all 64 World Cup matches but struck a deal with Optus, reportedly worth $8 million, to allow the telco to stream every game. SBS retained the game of the day and 38 English Premier League games through the year.

PROUD Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak has called on his team to move on from the VAR fiasco that marred their World Cup opening-game loss to France.

Jedinak’s penalty equaliser cancelled out Antoine Griezmann’s controversial VAR-induced opener before Paul Pogba’s late winner.

Jedinak said the players must adapt as the VAR was part of the game now, despite replays clearly showing that Josh Risdon toe-poked the ball before making contact with Griezmann, casting huge doubt on the validity of the overrule, which were supposed to be reserved for “clangers”.

“The fact that the player kept going for a little bit was the strangest thing I have encountered. But we have to accept it and move forward, as harsh as it is,’’ Jedinak said.

“This is going to be debated for a very long time. If I said I was frustrated by the decision, I wouldn’t be lying.

“But the score says 2-1 to France, a penalty to Greizman and a yellow card to Josh Risdon.”

The Aston Villa midfielder has not had a lot of exposure to VAR, but has watched some of the chaotic calls from afar.

He suspects there will be more VAR calls to play out in Russia.

“Not [had] a lot of dealings with it, watched games back home and seen stuff said about it. It’s here now, have to accept, like it or loathe it, it’s here and part of modern football,’’ he said.

“I think it changes a few things refereeing, maybe hesitate to make decisions and get call from up top, we’ve still got to play game and focus on it.”