Cup probe after grand final drama

THE company providing the A-League’s video refereeing system will conduct an urgent inquiry into the catastrophic software failure at the grand final, amid fresh concerns over its use at the World Cup.

The system failure that that led to Melbourne Victory’s winning goal in the grand final being wrongly allowed raises fresh questions over the use of the controversial VAR system at the World Cup, at which the same company, Hawkeye, is expected to supply the technology.

Hawkeye has promised to find the root cause of the loss for several minutes of one of the two vision feeds to the VAR at McDonald Jones Stadium, which came 30 seconds before Kosta Barbarouses’s ninth-minute goal which should have been disallowed for an off-side in the build-up.

By the time the feed was restored the game had restarted, allowing Victory to hold on to their lead and secure a fourth championship.

At the World Cup the VARs will be based in a central location rather than at each stadium, prompting fears of what will happen if a similar issue is to arise at the World Cup.

A-League referees boss Ben Wilson will make a report to FIFA today about the incident, which meant that the side-on view which showed three Victory players standing off-side as Leroy George took a free kick was not available to the VAR until several minutes after the goal.