Ref stands by foul call
MELBOURNE derby referee Kurt Ams had the power to overrule his Bruno Fornaroli gaffe by calling a “drop ball”, but A-League chiefs said the VAR did its job.
A-League boss Greg O’Rourke conceded the call, which gifted Melbourne City an equaliser, was wrong but a Tweet from the official A-League account on Saturday night tried to justify the penalty.
Ams awarded a free-kick to Fornaroli on the edge of the penalty area after deeming he was brought down by a Melbourne Victory defender.
FFA confirmed that Ams could have called a drop ball if he deemed contact was insufficient to award a foul and not simulation.
A VAR check saw him stand by his call and upgrade it to a penalty with the incident occurring inside the box.
It’s understood that Ams privately conceded post-match that he had blundered.
“It’s subjective because it is determining if there was enough contact to award a foul however in the opinion of the Elite Referee coach the contact did not meet that threshold and a foul should not have been awarded in the first instance,’’ O’Rourke said.
“On Saturday night Ams made a decision that Fornaroli had been contacted with enough force to award a foul. The VAR only intervened to advise him that the incident had happened inside the box and, because of how subjective it was, that he should come to the sideline and review it himself and also confirm what he saw was inside the box.
“So the VAR actually worked as per protocol. The referee reviewed this and stuck by his original decision.”
Victory coach Kevin Muscat remained frustrated yesterday.
“I haven’t met any yet – apart from City and good luck to them – that’s said it’s a penalty,’’ Muscat said.
“So they (FFA) are supporting that the decision was right (on Twitter).
“They weren’t causing us problems, we were inside their half and we were building momentum. Then the incident happens.”
There was consensus that the issue was with Ams’ interpretation rather than the VAR, with O’Rourke conceding it was a fine line with regards’ to video input, with the system now
“It’s not for the VAR to give his opinion around the level of contact, that’s a matter for the referee. Otherwise that could be a debate in any tackle,’’ he said.
“All he can do is point out to the referee that he thinks he should have another look at it.”