Rufer’s red card decision ‘wrong’
The Wellington Phoenix have received an apology for the VAR intervention that led to a red card for Alex Rufer in their 1-1 draw with Macarthur FC, but are waiting to see how long a suspension the midfielder will receive.
Club general manager David Dome said yesterday A-League referees adviser Strebre Delovski had apologised to him and to coach Ufuk Talay in the wake of the incident an hour into the match on Saturday at Campbelltown Stadium in New South Wales.
After stretching out and kicking the ball away from the feet of Denis Genreau, Rufer tumbled over and his legs caught the legs of the Macarthur midfielder, who was seeking to join his team-mates in a counter-attack.
Rufer’s eyes were closed and there didn’t appear to be any intent, nor any recklessness on his part, but it caught the eye of video assistant referee Kris GriffithsJones, who directed the man in the middle, Stephen Lucas, to take another look at it on the pitchside monitor and reconsider his original yellow card decision.
Dome said Delovski had ‘‘apologised’’ and acknowledged the officials had ‘‘got it wrong’’.
‘‘They’ve admitted the fault in two ways,’’ Dome said. ‘‘Number one, Kris Griffiths-Jones, who was the VAR, should not have referred that back to Stephen Lucas, then number two, Stephen Lucas shouldn’t have overturned the yellow and turned it into a red.’’
Dome said the decision had been particularly frustrating because it went against the instructions video assistant referees had been given as part of a focus on player safety.
‘‘They’re very concerned about late tackles . . . and they have been saying let’s keep an eye on that, let’s try and stamp those out.
‘‘The issue in this particular circumstance was that [the officials] had been told quite categorically that if the referee sees the incident, [the VAR should] not go back and re-referee it.
‘‘That’s the difference in this one – Lucas saw the incident, he was going to award a yellow card, but then Griffiths-Jones comes in and says you need to go back and look at it. Why would he need to do that if he saw the incident in the first place?
‘‘That’s the major issue that Strebre Delovski had with the VAR intervention at the time and that most of us on the management side had, because that was the instruction we were told, that they were not going to re-referee games through the VAR, that they were just going to highlight player safety and if the referee missed an incident, then they would go back to it.’’
Rufer’s red card was classed as violent conduct, which carries a minimum two-match suspension, but it was set to be assessed by the independent match review panel and could be re-classified.
Dome said the Phoenix had little hope of overturning the decision entirely – that requires there to be a case of mistaken identity or for the incident to have been deemed not worthy of even a yellow card – and would wait and see what the outcome was before deciding on their next steps.
‘‘We will wait now for the match review panel and then consider our response once they’ve come back with what their disciplinary action is around it.
‘‘We are certainly hopeful that they will take into account the nature of the incident.’’
Dome said he was confident there wouldn’t be a repeat.
‘‘I think we can be relatively comfortable that the message has got through to both the referee and the VAR, that the way they handled that particular incident was incorrect at the weekend.’’
He added: ‘‘If they learn from it, and they make the changes to ensure that it doesn’t happen again for us or for any other team, then I think you have to say it’s a positive thing, asmuch as it can be.’’
The Phoenix have the weekend off this week.
‘‘We will wait now for the match review panel and then consider our response.’’
David Dome
Phoenix general manager