Video Assistant Referee system fails in A-League Grand Final
Sunday 6 May 2018 14:44, UK
A major technical failure prevented the video assistant referee (VAR) from being used to help decide the controversial winning goal in Australia's A-League Grand Final between Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets.
The Victory scored the only goal of the game in the ninth minute when Kostas Barbarouses fired in, although James Donachie appeared to be in an offside position when he provided the crucial assist from a free-kick.
Replays clearly showed three Victory players in an offside position when the free-kick was taken, but the VAR was not used to intervene and goal was allowed to stand.
The Football Federation of Australia (FFA) have confirmed that a glitch in the technology was to blame for the error and admitted the system was lost for 30 seconds during the controversial incident.
"We are extremely disappointed at this failure of the VAR technology, and we understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans," the FFA's head of the A-League Greg O'Rourke said in a statement.
"VAR was introduced here and in other parts of the world as a technology-based solution to correct the human errors that inevitably are made from time to time when officials are making judgements in split seconds.
"On this occasion the technology itself failed and the broadcast angles required were unavailable. While we understand that this happened only once this season, it was at a most critical time.
"We understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans.
"We are working with Hawk-Eye to thoroughly understand why it did and what can be done to prevent this happening again."
