The championship game of Australia’s top soccer league was mired in controversy Saturday by a software malfunction in the Hawkeye Video Assistant Referee system. Melbourne Victory defender James Donachie was visibly offsides on a free kick that immediately preceded teammate Kosta Barbarouses’ goal. The VAR review should have negated the goal, which proved to be the lone score as Melbourne prevailed 1-0 over the Newcastle Jets in the Hyundai A-League’s Grand Final.
Broadcast footage shows Donachie was offsides when Melbourne’s Leroy George took a longe-range free kick from the left side of the field in the ninth minute. Donachie headed the ball back down to Barbarouses on the right side of the goal, and the right winger managed to get the ball past Newcastle keeper Glen Moss. But that video was not fed to the VAR system, and the offsides call was missed on review, just as it had been on the field.
A-League looks at NRL Bunker model for video ref system after VAR grand final failure. MORE: https://t.co/Ft6LAz0a8t pic.twitter.com/dt1Yt7rXe2
— Herald Sun Sport (@heraldsunsport) May 7, 2018
Football Federation Australia, which operates the league, later issued a statement explaining 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.”
The call on the field stood as called, permitting the goal, and eventually dooming the Jets.
“We are extremely disappointed at this failure of the VAR technology,” said league head Greg O’Rourke in the statement. “And we understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans.
“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. We are working with Hawkeye to thoroughly understand why it did and what can be done to prevent this happening again.”
In response to SportTechie’s request for comment, a Hawkeye executive said the company would be releasing its own statement shortly.
The Herald Sun reported that A-League executives are considering a switch to a centralized replay system, modeled after the one used by the country’s rugby league. Such a system is also used in the U.S. by MLB, the NBA, NFL, and NHL. Major League Soccer referees use a sideline monitor to review calls.
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SportTechie Takeaway
The timing of this VAR failing could not have been worse. Newcastle’s fairytale season ended in a loss because of a technological glitch, prompting two Jets stars to say, “This is something that a simple ‘Sorry’ just won’t do and it can not be accepted.”
More broadly, the issue is a troubling lead-up to VAR’s World Cup debut this summer in Russia. There have already been a series of problems with replay throughout international soccer, and the FFA acknowledged at least the consequences of diminished faith in the VAR system.
“Whilst we understand that this happened only once this season it was at a most critical time. All parties desire the technology to be failure proof and that is what we will be striving for,” O’Rourke said. “This is important not just for the Hyundai A-League but for other leagues around the world and for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at which VAR will be used for the first time.”