The future of VAR in the A-League "could come into question," with Football Federation Australia expected to "look closely at the system as a result of Melbourne Victory’s controversial 1-0 win" over the Newcastle Jets in the grand final on Saturday, according to Ray Gatt of THE AUSTRALIAN. FFA admitted a "technical glitch resulted in Victory’s goal in the biggest and most important game of the season being wrongly awarded" despite "clear evidence at least three players were offside." The organization "initiated a quick review of the events of Saturday night" following an "uproar" over VAR’s failure to overturn Kosta Barbarouses’ ninth-minute goal, which ultimately decided the outcome. FFA issued a statement on Sunday in which it said that "a technical failure in the system" meant Craig Zetter, who was in charge of VAR for the game, "did not have access to the camera views that would have enabled him to make an offside ruling" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/7). STUFF reported A-League Head Greg O'Rourke placed the blame "at the feet of technology partner Hawkeye." He said that the capture software that uploads the broadcast feed into the VAR system was "partially lost 30 seconds before Victory's goal due to a malfunction of software." It was "not until some minutes after the goal that this was restored," too late to change the decision on the goal as the game had restarted (STUFF, 5/6). In Sydney, Dominic Bossi reported Newcastle Jets CEO Lawrie McKinna called for FFA to "drastically improve its use" of VAR. O'Rourke's public apology "will prove of little comfort to the devastated Jets." McKinna: "Myself and [coach] Ernie [Merrick] actually supported the VAR but obviously last night the linesman got it wrong because he didn’t flag, the VAR got it wrong and now it’s going to be at the World Cup. If the FFA are going to stick with this -- and I think they will -- then they need to get better at it" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/6).
'PEAK FFA': In Melbourne, Michael Lynch wrote FFA "looked as if it might, just might, dodge a bullet and finish the campaign on a high note." But "how hubristic were we all." We "underestimated the governing body's ability to find disaster in the face of triumph and undermine the positivity that the finals had generated." In some ways, it was "peak FFA -- that ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" (THE AGE, 5/6).
