Amid fan dissent, VARs and refs in the A-Leagues say they want to stick to fixing only ‘clear and obvious’ mistakes, writes Tom Smithies.
Not many people would have noticed the group of men and women assembling in a room at a hotel near Sydney Airport on Monday morning, but the conversation over coffee and bottles of water gave a clue as to why they were gathering.
This wasn’t a conference of sales professionals, but the referees and VARs from the A-Leagues coming together for what some critics would see as a much-needed discussion in the wake of some stinging criticism from fans over the VAR system.
While there’s no doubt that the video ref is the Vegemite of football – some observers will always hate it – there is a sense that this season has annoyed even the agnostics thanks to a few well-publicised incidents.
In fact the VAR has largely whirred away in the background unnoticed. So far this year there have been 426 incidents reviewed in almost 90 games, and 31 of those sparked an intervention – 10 so-called “factual reviews” (like the Sydney FC penalty in last weekend’s derby being turned into a freekick as the challenge was outside the area) and the rest where the VAR recommended an on-field review by the main referee.
Refs boss Nathan McGill reckons that “as a team, we have identified that we have missed six reviews, and there have been five errors from the VAR review onfield”, which doesn’t sound like much. The problem has been the spectacular nature of at least some of those errors, and the time taken over other decisions, both have which have fed fan resentment.
That was the point of Monday’s pow-wow – to agree on a level of intervention where the serious mistakes get addressed, quickly, but the games are largely left to flow. The fans want it, the players want it, and the refs say they want it too. At a World Cup, with millions of dollars and national prestige at stake, every decision gets pored over. In a 30-week season, no one can bear that level of scrutiny.
Remember the three key words that were at the heart of VAR when it was brought in – only “clear and obvious” errors need dealing with. You won’t find any argument with that from Chris Beath, the country’s most senior male referee who officiated in both last year’s Olympic men’s gold medal match and the final of the Club World Cup.
Beath also acts as one of the VARs, and is an influential voice within the panel of A-Leagues officials.
“It’s important that we’re receptive to feedback,” Beath told KEEPUP. “We want to be part of making the game better. For us this season has been good but we should be aiming to make it great, especially as the finals get closer.
“We have listened to feedback on what that line of intervention should be, and everyone is on the same page – we should only get involved in clear and obvious errors.
“It was helpful to have nearly all the refs and VARs together – much like players, the more time we spend with each other, the better we get as a team.”
If this feels a little like déjà vu, that’s because we have been here before – in the early days of Australia’s pioneering use of the video system there were way too many reviews, and they took too long until fan frustration led to a much healthier balance. As one referee said privately at the time, “if you can’t see it’s a mistake first time, it’s not clear and obvious.”
Now Magill, who oversees all referees since the officials stayed with Football Australia following the A-Leagues’ separation, wants to find and maintain that balance again.
“We focused on two critical themes (on Monday): consistency of application and reducing the time to implement effective reviews,” Magill said.
“From my perspective, we are seeking to reduce the band of interpretation to enhance the experience for the players and fans. Consistency is one of the most critical factors within our group as we look to refine our implementation of the VAR.”
