The Whistle: Round 8 refereeing and VAR incidents explained
Each week a-league.com.au will be speaking with FFA Director of Referees Ben Wilson to review some of the contentious refereeing and VAR incidents from the weekend’s matches.
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Ben, let’s start with the penalty awarded to Perth Glory in the 1st minute in Newcastle.
In this incident, Joel Chianese was tripped down by Glen Moss in the penalty area. The referee correctly awarded a penalty kick for the offence.
Moss denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity but he was attempting to play the ball, so the referee should have cautioned him. The VAR checked the incident and agreed with the decision to award a penalty kick.
The VAR cannot recommend that the referee caution Moss as that falls outside of the VAR protocol.
Staying in Newcastle, the referee did not award the Jets a freekick just outside the penalty area in the 91st minute, can the VAR intervene in these situations?
In this incident, there was a challenge from Dino Djulbic on Ronald Vargas near the Perth Glory penalty area. The referee did not award a free kick.
The VAR checked the incident for a possible missed penalty. The VAR determined that it was a foul. However, because it occurred outside the penalty area (and was not a red card offence) the VAR could not intervene.
In Wellington the Phoenix had a goal disallowed in the 34th minute for offside, talk us through the process in these situations.
It was the correct decision and process from the refereeing team. The Assistant Referee identified that Steven Taylor was offside before the goal was scored and he delayed raising his flag for a moment.
The referee waited until after the goal was scored before blowing his whistle. This would have allowed the VAR to change the decision and award the goal if the offside decision was clearly and obviously wrong.
