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  • VAR & FFA Must Go After Derby Disgrace

    mack

    By mack

    Those in charge of Football Federation Australia must follow the VAR out the door after another display of the VAR and Australia's inept referees cheating the Wanderers, snuffing out a potential comeback in what should have been a classic Sydney Derby.

    Sydney FC scored an early goal just 4 minutes into the match. Adam Le Fondre standing in an offside position at a free kick, hung around after a half-clearance, the ball fell to him after a shot back in. Vedran Janjetovic smothered his initial shot but another piece of luck had him smack the rebound into an empty net. Replays showed that not only was Le Fondre offside at the free kick (but according to the VAR, somehow not interfering with play), but that Mahazi had been interfered with by an offside Brosque. The score was 1-0, and the VAR did nothing.

    After the break the Wanderers were two behind having gifted their opponents a golden chance to score. On the edge of their own area, Sotirio played a hospital ball to Josh Risdon, and instead of trying to clear, he played a sideways pass intended for Mahazi that was intercepted by Ninkovic, and he pounced to play through Brosque and his first time strike beat Janjetovic at the far post.

    Despite going two behind, the Wanderers did show some of the vaunted mentality Markus Babbel has been trying to instill in his charges, but when they finally converted one of their chances to score, it was cruelly and idiotically over-turned by the inept Chris Beath with an assist from the VAR. Baumjohann and Risdon worked down the right flank, the Risdon cross made it's way to the other end of the area where Roly Bonevacia smashed an 18 yard first time rocket past Andrew Redmayne.

    With no real protests from the home side, the VAR intervened to take away the goal. Chris Beath decided that Michael Zullo had been fouled by Jaushua Sotirio in the lead up to the cross. While Sotirio was in an offside position, Zullo's choice to dive into Sotirio while meters away from the ball was rewarded with Beath over-turning the decision by declaring Sotirio had fouled the SFC defender. in the aftermath Markus Babbel exploded at the fourth official, remonstrating to show his disgust at the call. He was awarded the A-League's first "Coach Red Card" by Beath. Babbel then walked around the long boundary of the Sydney Cricket Ground, a route that took him in front of the RBB who roared their approval.

    The failure was compounded in the post-game with Beath being interviewed and stating that the decision was actually offside, even though vision showed clearly that his decision was that it was a foul. Additionally, his interview stated that the linesman who was as close to Sotirio as Zullo was to Risdon, had completely missed the offside/foul and that the decision was solely made by VAR and himself.

    It was another display of referees who aren't good enough to be officiating our most important football games.

    Enough is enough.

    This is not just the VAR. Although it needs to be cancelled immediately. The VAR failed from the moment it was introduced. Bad decisions have been made since Wellington Phoenix were robbed against Sydney FC in Round 26 in 2016/17. Perth Glory were robbed in the Semi-Final in that season. The technology failed Newcastle Jets in the Grand Final last. It failed to detect Bruno Fornaroli diving in the recent Melbourne Derby. It tonight secured another game for Sydney FC. Offsides are a lottery. Tonight WSW have a goal taken away for offside. Last year Adelaide when playing against us had a clear offside goal investigated by the VAR be allowed to stand.

    The Wanderers were cruelled against Perth Glory when sideline cameras failed to be in the right decision for an obvious offside, leading to a red card against us. It ignores certain laws like encroachment at penalties, and offsides against players standing offside from free kicks. When looking at holding in the penalty area from set pieces the VAR is seemingly over intended to confirm whatever decision was made on the field. When a decision isn't made on the pitch by the referee, the basic law against holding is ignored by the VAR. The level of intervention around forceful tackles once saw the Mariners reduced by two players from VAR decisions, while other tackles that could break legs are ignored in other games.

    This is the result of a long held refusal by the FFA to enforce basic standards of officiating skill. We have seen officials give baffling offsides against players standing behind the ball being played. We have seen offsides given from a throw in. There is zero consistency in the application of offside. There is zero consistency in the application of handball. Certain teams received baffling leniency when playing tactics that deliberately disrupt their opposition with professional fouls in the midfield.

    The time for incremental change is over.

    Now that the FFA Governance saga is over, I call on whoever makes up the new FFA Board to immediately sack FFA Chief Executive David Gallop, Head of the A-League Greg O'Rourke, FFA Referees boss Ben Wilson, and A-League referees Chris Beath, Jarred Gillett, Kurt Ams, Peter Green and Shaun Evans. The FFA/A-League positions must be filled with people passionate about football. The VAR must be immediately cancelled and never return to Australian football.

    Get in touch with the football associations in German, England, Japan and Holland. Ask for the phone numbers of some consistent referees, who might be inclined to spend 6 months in the Australian summer. Bring them over. 

    The current people in charge of Football Federation Australia have lost the trust of the football community. 

    The new FFA Board must take the chance to rebuild the foundation of our sport in a positive, intelligent matter to take the sport forward once again. We risk turning the A-League into a joke, and having it be abandoned to the ruin of all the good work done by the players, clubs and supporters up to now. If the FFA fail to rectify the situation, a repeat of the ban list fan boycott is on the cards, and was called for by Mark Bosnich in the Fox Sports post-game show. I would wholeheartedly approve of that action.

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    • Popular Comment
    btron3000
    • Popular Comment
    1 hour ago, lloydy136 said:

    if its any consolation, robbie slater is being utterly brutalised on social media.

    he posted that the VAR and ref got things 100% right and then invited everyone to have a crack at him. so they did. including someone who found an old tweet of his where he argues the exact opposite on a similar situation (the syd fc v perth one referred to earlier I think).

    probably the highlight (along with babbel jacket toss) of the last 24 hours.

    This one just tickled me. Still giggling.

    Link to comment
    btron3000
    56 minutes ago, Davo said:

    His latest tweet was complaining about everyone having a crack at him. The responses are all reminders that he literally asked for it.

    To be fair to Robbie, he did only ask for "positive abuse". For some reason he seems to have got a lot of negative abuse instead.

    Link to comment
    Smoggy
    6 minutes ago, btron3000 said:

    To be fair to Robbie, he did only ask for "positive abuse". For some reason he seems to have got a lot of negative abuse instead.

    He is not an intelligent bloke is he. Sets himself up for a public argument on an issue he is clearly contradicting himself over and then encourages it all making no effort to hide the bias lol

    I remember banner-gate...I think he wet his knickers over that more than Arnie's family.

    Edited by Smoggy
    Link to comment
    btron3000
    1 minute ago, Smoggy said:

    He is not an intelligent bloke is he. Sets himself up for a public argument on an issue he is clearly contradicting himself over and then encourages it all making no effort to hide the bias lol

    I remember banner-gate...I think he wet his knickers over that more than Arnie's family.

    Wasn't it after banner-gate when he went on a rant - and wrote a column - talking about how he was there at the end of the NSL and it was behaviour like that that brought it down? 

    Surely Fox can find someone better. Can't Aloisi just give up coaching already.

    Link to comment
    BeefB
    17 hours ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

    Does that bloke Slater care about the game???? Geez on what Earth is that offside and impeding play? 

    He probably needs to stay onside with FFA - trying to worm his way into the establishment

    Link to comment
    BeefB
    28 minutes ago, btron3000 said:

    Away from VAR, the SCG wasn’t that bad. Not sure what it was like on the sides, can’t imagine much good.

    Pretty **** apparently - a friend of mine went and had seats at half way but on the side. He said he needed binoculars to see anything !

    Link to comment
    • Popular Comment
    mack
    • Popular Comment
    9 hours ago, Davo said:

    Beath was the one who reffed the derby that ended their unbeaten season. They’re still mad at him for waving away the Brosque penalty claim at the end.

    This one event that ultimately had no bearing on trophies, is the only thing that's really gone against them in 2 years, and it was hardly a stonewall penalty in the first place. But that's all they need as evidence that Chris Beath is against them and that everyone is just inventing conspiracies, or that WSW fans are bad fans because Bozza said there might be a boycott which immediately means the RBB is going to do exactly what Bozza says people will do.

    I can write a list showing a dozen VAR failures, how SFC get the benefit of bad calls 99% of the time, repeat the fact that SFC is partly owned by the Lowy family, show them our goal being cancelled for "offside" and the goal that secured their semi-final win vs Perth being allowed, and all they'll pick out is that one moment they got a 50/50 go against them, or that WSW was owned by the FFA for a year and dismiss everything else.

    They have zero self awareness about the calls going their way and turn their wilful ignorance into a "everyone hates us" siege mentality. Smurf fans would rather have the A-League die than admit the bias that helps them.

    Link to comment
    alexd
    1 hour ago, mack said:

    This one event that ultimately had no bearing on trophies, is the only thing that's really gone against them in 2 years, and it was hardly a stonewall penalty in the first place. But that's all they need as evidence that Chris Beath is against them and that everyone is just inventing conspiracies, or that WSW fans are bad fans because Bozza said there might be a boycott which immediately means the RBB is going to do exactly what Bozza says people will do.

    I can write a list showing a dozen VAR failures, how SFC get the benefit of bad calls 99% of the time, repeat the fact that SFC is partly owned by the Lowy family, show them our goal being cancelled for "offside" and the goal that secured their semi-final win vs Perth being allowed, and all they'll pick out is that one moment they got a 50/50 go against them, or that WSW was owned by the FFA for a year and dismiss everything else.

    They have zero self awareness about the calls going their way and turn their wilful ignorance into a "everyone hates us" siege mentality. Smurf fans would rather have the A-League die than admit the bias that helps them.

    But everyone does hate them.... not necessarily for those reasons 

    Link to comment
    Edinburgh

    Just on the boycott thoughts - protests should start with banners or signs. And was there a chant at the MV match tonight that mentioned VAR?

    Link to comment
    SBW

    Its funny how smurfs fan always bring up that non-penalty call against them when we beat them and they also bring up the 2nd leg of the ACL final.

    But there is a list from both Mack and FCB of the calls that have gone their way over the last 5 years and have benefited them.

    Link to comment
    SBW
    1 minute ago, Edinburgh said:

    Just on the boycott thoughts - protests should start with banners or signs. And was there a chant at the MV match tonight that mentioned VAR?

    They were chanting VAR because Chianese scored in an offside position but they have cleared because the touch came off Antonis

    Link to comment
    mack
    1 minute ago, SBW said:

    They were chanting VAR because Chianese scored in an offside position but they have cleared because the touch came off Antonis

    They changed '**** the VAR' at the start of the game, and shortly after an ironic VAR chant to try and get the goal chalked off.

    Link to comment
    Edinburgh
    1 minute ago, SBW said:

    They were chanting VAR because Chianese scored in an offside position but they have cleared because the touch came off Antonis

    Wasn't that, the chant was well before the goal was scored.

    Link to comment
    BoyFromTheWest

    Mack Said:They have zero self awareness about the calls going their way and turn their wilful ignorance into a "everyone hates us" siege mentality. Smurf fans would rather have the A-League die than admit the bias that helps them.

    When we won the ACL final and had several fairly genuine penalty calls against us waved away, we accepted it with the acknowledgement we were lucky - got the good calls, even though 1 or more were probably wrong.  We admitted we were lucky and have praised Japanese refs ever since.  That's the difference - we celebrated with acknowledgement we got the rub of the green.  They celebrate with entitlement and a lack of self awareness.

    I can't quite understand how Le Fondre's goal wasn't considered offside - there were 2 points at which he looked off-side - admittedly a difficult angle to judge but he was off side on the kick.  The penalty call on ABJ was entirely missed - whether a free kick or penalty it was a clear infringement.. 

    On the game itself, I thought we did reasonably well.  There were moments we weren't good - the 2nd goal for example.  There were also plenty of moments we dominated the play, especially near the end.  It is easy to point fingers at our players but I'm struggling to think about who of theirs were so much better?  Perhaps Ninkovic.  Who else would I want in WSW?  Not sure - and Grant should be red carded as soon as he steps onto the field for bringing the game into disrepute with his hair cut.

     

    Link to comment
    Hughesy

    The whole VAR controversy/missing out on that clear pen seemed to improve our play ten fold. A bit of fire in the belly worked wonders.

    Everyones articulated my thoughts on the VAR so I’ll leave that. I thought a draw would’ve been fair purely by fact but nothing more. I thought that up until that controversial moment, we were quite pathetic.

    Looked like we had no plan B and I’m questioning whether we even had a plan A. We looked like we were playing for a draw despite being behind, that’s probably the best way I can describe what I saw. The lack of creativity and purpose was exposed by the number of times we would just pack up shop and go back to the keeper. There was one moment in the second half where the ball got played back to Vedran a third time and he looked like he was sick of touching it...

    I thought Roly showed complete stupidity on multiple occasions last night and let the side down big time. He must’ve given away at least 3 or 4 fouls where a Sydney player was running back towards their goal. For me that’s inexcusable for any footballer, let along a professional and every time he did so, he let them off the hook. We have no oomph in the middle of the field, O’Neil and Brilliante are ******* midgets but instead made us look like the Oompa Loompas. Mahazi was the only one who looked like he was having a dig. Our midfield is weak as piss. 

    All I can say about Sotirio is that he must train like Mohammad Ali because he certainly ain’t competing like him. There was a moment where we won the ball and broke on the counter, bammy J was looking to play it wide and what’s Sotirio doing? He’s sitting about 5 metre offside on the side line having a sandwich. Honestly... his IQ was down there with Roly’s.

    Having said that, from the moment of the controversy onward, that’s the first time I’ve genuinely felt ripped off by a refereeing decision and still do. When Marcus came past us in the Bloc, what a relatable feeling that was that we all shared hahaha

    I must say, I reckon the view from the RBB wasn’t that bad. Ironically, just like spotless, I actually reckon it was close to the best seat in the house in terms of distance from the pitch. 

    Overall though, much work needs to be done. And for Christ sake, it would be so nice that just for one whole game, we showed some sort of threat off a set piece. 

    Link to comment
    Harv

    I thought Roly demonstrated gutter cunning in carrying out the plan in the lead up to the disallowed goal.  Having received a bump in the mouth, he reeled dramatically but received no love from the referee.  He then complained bitterly to the AR who, similarly, ignored him.  Feigning a dummy spit he made his way slowly forward with the game now having moved to the opposite side of the ground.  With the Sydney defence by now having forgotten that Roly was still in the game, Roly suddenly found himself alone, in acres of space, with the ball at his feet, and produced  a finish worthy of the initial cheers.  A pity this well executed plan came undone through the intervention of the VAR.

    Link to comment
    StillWandering

    Pissed about the VAR result but more pissed that it took that to fire people up enough to give chanting a go. Ffs after two rounds off each chant most of the rbb was non existent. Fire up people, even some of the regulars up front were too busy being pissed and not getting behind the team. I know its been a lean few years but who gives a ****. Scream your ass off at the game and complain later otherwise your part of the problem. 

    Link to comment
    ZachMercer
    33 minutes ago, hughsey said:

    The whole VAR controversy/missing out on that clear pen seemed to improve our play ten fold. A bit of fire in the belly worked wonders.

    Everyones articulated my thoughts on the VAR so I’ll leave that. I thought a draw would’ve been fair purely by fact but nothing more. I thought that up until that controversial moment, we were quite pathetic.

    Looked like we had no plan B and I’m questioning whether we even had a plan A. We looked like we were playing for a draw despite being behind, that’s probably the best way I can describe what I saw. The lack of creativity and purpose was exposed by the number of times we would just pack up shop and go back to the keeper. There was one moment in the second half where the ball got played back to Vedran a third time and he looked like he was sick of touching it...

    I thought Roly showed complete stupidity on multiple occasions last night and let the side down big time. He must’ve given away at least 3 or 4 fouls where a Sydney player was running back towards their goal. For me that’s inexcusable for any footballer, let along a professional and every time he did so, he let them off the hook. We have no oomph in the middle of the field, O’Neil and Brilliante are ******* midgets but instead made us look like the Oompa Loompas. Mahazi was the only one who looked like he was having a dig. Our midfield is weak as piss. 

    All I can say about Sotirio is that he must train like Mohammad Ali because he certainly ain’t competing like him. There was a moment where we won the ball and broke on the counter, bammy J was looking to play it wide and what’s Sotirio doing? He’s sitting about 5 metre offside on the side line having a sandwich. Honestly... his IQ was down there with Roly’s. 

     Having said that, from the moment of the controversy onward, that’s the first time I’ve genuinely felt ripped off by a refereeing decision and still do. When Marcus came past us in the Bloc, what a relatable feeling that was that we all shared hahaha

    I must say, I reckon the view from the RBB wasn’t that bad. Ironically, just like spotless, I actually reckon it was close to the best seat in the house in terms of distance from the pitch. 

    Overall though, much work needs to be done. And for Christ sake, it would be so nice that just for one whole game, we showed some sort of threat off a set piece. 

    Do we have a snippet of the:

    "There was a moment where we won the ball and broke on the counter, bammy J was looking to play it wide and what’s Sotirio doing? He’s sitting about 5 metre offside on the side line hav ing a sandwich."

    I distinctly remember them panning to a shot of ABJ looking at Sotirio like he was a fck tard.

    Link to comment
    luisenrique
    39 minutes ago, ZachMercer said:

     

    I distinctly remember them panning to a shot of ABJ looking at Sotirio like he was a fck tard.

    Hahah yeah I remember this, I think it was after the through ball he played.

    Not gonna bother analysing the game tactically, because what's the point? We're watching a controlled simulation, not a real football game.

    Good to catch up with some of the forum mites. Can't be arsed discussing the VAR further. Chuck me into the growing pile of people who don't really care about all of this anymore while it's still around, at least from a results perspective. I'll still watch the games and support the boys obviously, but life's too short to get upset over a competition run in such a farcical and crooked manner.

     

     

    Link to comment
    colhil

    Not going to comment on Beath/VAR...others have already said it all. 

    ESFC scored 2 lucky goals and we missed a couple. 2nd half  performance was much better than the first. Would have been a great last 20 mins if the goal had stood.

    Satirio is not up to HAL standard, never has been. Still hasn't worked out the pass must go in front of the man in the box, not behind him. But he does a great impersonation of a headless chook.

    Loved going to SCG, however was a long, long way from the action.

    RBB was awesome, especially after MB got marched. True passion.

    Link to comment
    Adam

    With all of this VAR business, I think a really powerful way to send a clear message is to boycott celebrating goals.

    We are wasting our time doing it now, so why not show them how ridiculous the situation has become?

    Link to comment
    Burztur
    10 minutes ago, Adam said:

    With all of this VAR business, I think a really powerful way to send a clear message is to boycott celebrating goals.

    We are wasting our time doing it now, so why not show them how ridiculous the situation has become?

    I think people will just become apathetic and not go to games. Less waste of time that way...

    Link to comment
    beatsurrender
    1 hour ago, Adam said:

    With all of this VAR business, I think a really powerful way to send a clear message is to boycott celebrating goals.

    We are wasting our time doing it now, so why not show them how ridiculous the situation has become?

    Not me mate. When the Wanderers score I love it too much !

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