Red card decision ‘was wrong’
Football Federation Australia has admitted an error in one of its referee’s decisions on Sunday night.
Wellington Phoenix general manager David Dome said he had been contacted by A-League chief Greg O’Rourke to say the decision to show Ryan Lowry a red card, after intervention from the Video Assistant Referee, in the 1-1 draw with Perth Glory was incorrect.
‘‘Greg rang me this morning to say he had taken it up with [Football Federation Australia director of referees] Ben Wilson, who then rang the ref and VAR to get their points of view,’’ Dome said yesterday.
‘‘Eventually they got to a space where the referee was admitting he’d made the wrong call on the red card, so their position is going to be that while technically you could say it was the correct decision, but that it was not the correct decision in the context of the game.’’
Dome confirmed they had appealed against Lowry’s red card, which was controversially shown to the Phoenix defender after Kiwi VAR Nick Waldron advised on-field referee Adam Kersey to look at the replays of the incident.
Kersey observed replays of Lowry winning the ball in a slide tackle before his momentum took his studs into the ankle of a Perth Glory player. He then showed Lowry a straight red card.
Wellington Phoenix coach Mark Rudan said after the match the decision was a ‘‘joke’’ and the VAR should be withdrawn from the league.
‘‘Get rid of it. Scrap it,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m just one coach. Other coaches have been on the end of these decisions as well. [Western Sydney Wanderers coach] Markus Babbel, a comrade.
‘‘If no-one is a fan of it, just move it on. Stop wasting people’s time and money. I’m sure the referees or the federation aren’t happy having to employ extra officials sitting in a room when they could be with their families doing something of benefit rather than sitting here watching a game of football and having to make big decisions like that.’’
The VAR system came in for a lot of criticism in the opening rounds of the season, which led to the FFA instructing its referees to be stricter around its implementation for only clear and obvious errors.
But that move has appeared short-lived in Rudan’s eyes, based on Sunday night’s evidence.
Dome said the club was also unhappy a first-half penalty decision was not reviewed, despite replays appearing to show Louis Fenton being dragged down in the box.
‘‘There are three aspects to it. ‘‘No 1, the referees need to be more skilled up to handle these sorts of things – there are only three professional refs in the league and five matches each round.
‘‘No 2, the VAR was not introduced for incidents like that. That was never the intent to have tackles like that reviewed. That’s ridiculous, you’d have to relitigate every tackle in the game.
‘‘No 3, the smaller clubs, Wellington, Central Coast, Newcastle and to a certain extent Adelaide, tend to get the more inexperienced refs . . . so we’re used as a training ground for the referees, which is just not acceptable.’’
After the match, Rudan said injured goalkeeper Filip Kurto, who suffered a head injury in the first half and was stretchered off, was doing ‘‘OK’’, but would need to be monitored throughout the week.