Check out Pippinu’s article Is the A-League a credible competition?
I don’t necessarily agree with his argument that the FFA has an anti-Melbourne agenda which has affected referee decisions, but I certainly think that the inconsistency of referee decisions (and review panel decisions) undermines the A-League’s credibility. A certain level of inconsistency is to be expected – referees are human after all – but some of the blatant refereeing errors leave a lot to be desired.
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Interesting article. One would hope that the FFA do not have a hidden agenda, but I for one tend to think that the FFA appear to be very Sydney centric. Then again look at the NRL, it seems the Melbourne team is treated differently to the rest of the league – is it because they are successful?? Back to MVFC, we most certainly have been dealt with harshly in all these cards and the inaction of the officials and FFA to sanction Danny Tiato is disgraceful. Maybe, just maybe this second Melbourne team based in the city is a way of diminishing a successful operation and preventing a ’superclub” from being created. If the FFA is worried about a “superclub”, surely the salary cap will prevent that. As far as members go, if we as a club can hold 20,000 members that is our good fortune. Maybe the Sydney’s of this world should do something in their own back yards to attract crowds and more members, not try to divide and conquer and existing enity.
Thanks for putting up the link.
I know that I will cop criticism for this article, but absolutely no one, and I mean no one, is talking about this Tiatto incident and the extreme inconsistency in the FFA’s decision to exonerate him completely. Not only that, it’s impossible to find out anything about the decision-making process full stop.
It just makes me despair that there is something rotten going on here – there are simply too many events piled up on top of each other to excuse as a bit of a bad luck – it’s gone well beyond that.
I also think part of the problem is the match officials themselves. I don’t beleive that they are up to it. I notice linesman (I refuse to call them assistant referees) only flag offsides with their spring loaded arms. They rarely if ever flag for fouls and a lot of the time, only point the flag AFTER the referee has made a decision. The linesman was Johnny on the spot when Tiato elbowed Vargas and he did nothing, he waited for the ref to make the call.
The league has moved ahead in leaps and bounds, but sadly the match officials haven’t. In the real world Ben Williams would have been dropped after a performance like that, but do we have anyone to replace him?? I bet you he is allocated our game against Perth this weekend
It’s unbelievable that the Tiatto elbow was directly in front of the linesman; it’s unbelievable that the foul went against Vargas; and it’s unbelievable that the FFA chose to do nothing with the benefit of the video evidence.
It raises serious, serious doubts about this whole process and the integrity of the FFA itself.
Unfortunately, I came in a couple minutes late and missed the Tiato incident. All I heard were the shouts, and I assumed he’d picked up a yellow (imagine my frustration when the ’second’ yellow late in the second half didn’t come to anything).
Tiatto made a few other rough challenges which could have been yellows. What’s worst is that he talked up how hard he would play in the game earlier in the week. Surely that kind of talk would make the referee want to stamp his authority early on in the game?
No doubt about it boys, Danny was a very lucky boy and the pre-match comments were a joke, but don’t forget you’ve got you’re own little A-League stand-over man down there in K Muscat, who gets away with a bit.
I agree with you but this issue hasnt just affected you “tards”. I think SydneyFC have been treated poorly by referees during the first 3 seasons of the A-League. We have copped some dodgy decisions especially form Shields. As negative as it is for him to be hanging up his whistle, I think MVFC & SFC will benefit as he is an underdog lover.
what happened to this overhaul of the referees?
seems to amounted to little positive progression in terms of the ‘good’ let alone ‘decent’ referee decision making and all the linesman do is just flag offside.
I would rather the linesman take more control especially when the foul happens right in front of them (ie. Tiatto)
One last thing, if you look at any major league in the world just free kicks are awarded for the same level that our refs would hand out a card…
hopefully the refs get less card happy for all teams not just Victory and they let the game be played with a good flow to it
the ref last week was a joke.
how tiatto stayed on the park is beyond me……. and the hernandez decision…….. he’d just run 30 yards & was clipped.
the best thing is mark shield has announced his retirement……….thank god and good riddance.
Hernandez send off was bullshit. I was like you Eric at the game. I was convinced that Tiatto got 2 yellow cards and wasnt sent off but i was wrong.
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