Trial by video

Written by Tim Smithies

Tuesday, 04 September 2007

THE A-League could get its own citing panel, made up of ex-professionals and with the power to summon players to face a tribunal for offences missed by the referee or serious enough to warrant further disciplinary action.

After the calls for greater clarity over the issue of citing, in the wake of last week's tribunal hearings for Sydney's Terry McFlynn and Queensland's Danny Tiatto, Football Australia plans to set up a formal committee to make the process transparent.

The concept has already met opposition from the A-League's coaches. Last week's events brought criticism from coaches and officials after McFlynn and Tiatto both received bans but the Central Coast's Dean Heffernan escaped without a citing for a clash with Sydney's Mark Milligan.

That was due to the FFA's satisfaction that the referee had dealt with the incident at the time, but the foreshadowed panel would attempt to end such uncertainty with clearly defined - and explained - terms of reference.

However football chiefs will have to be extremely careful that the idea does not fall foul of FIFA's extreme distaste for using video evidence except in cases of mistaken identity - the wrong player cautioned, for instance - or where officials miss an incident.

Until now decisions on whether to cite a player have been taken by the head of the A-League - previously Matt Carroll and now Rob Abernethy - in consultation with other officials, but the panel would be an attempt to put the process on a public footing and answer criticisms of any perceived lack of soccer "knowledge''.

World governing body FIFA will only tolerate video use if it is essentially to correct occasional anomalies, though it's believed senior FFA officials are very sympathetic to the idea of working with FIFA to trial video initiatives in Australia.

But A-League coaches seem dead against the idea, with both Queensland's Frank Farina and Central Coast boss Lawrie McKinna yesterday voicing their opposition.

Farina, who lost Tiatto to a one-game ban last weekend, is concerned that events in the normal run of play have to be judged contemporaneously by the match officials.

"Fair enough for things off the ball, things where the ball's not in play, but the old adage is that the ref's decision is final,'' he said. "It seems we're the only country in the world that's going down this road at the moment.

"Where do you stop? Who's to say which incidents should be included? You'll have clubs sending in emails demanding the FFA look at incidents from other games.

"There aren't that many incidents where the ball's in play and the ref gets it seriously wrong. We live with other decisions that are wrong, so why change this?''

McKinna advanced the argument that events during a game should stay there and not be revisited.
"I'm a bit old-fashioned. If you'd kick someone during the game you go and have a beer after,'' he said. "What happens on the park the referee deals with and you move on.

"I think it's going to open up a big can of worms. When I played I got battered every week and I'd batter people and after the game I'd give 'em a hug and that'd be it.''