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When Melbourne Victory managed an 87th-minute penalty to draw level with Western Sydney last Saturday afternoon, there were plenty of strong views around whether the spot kick was deserved.
Wanderers folk would have clearly been in the camp suggesting that the arm of Jack Clisby was never in an unnatural position and that the punishment was far in excess of what was arguably even a crime. Victory supporters could not have cared less; in a celebratory mood around the 2-2 draw and the point that kept their team pushing towards the top of the A-League ladder.
Perhaps the most important and pertinent points of view are those held by people like me, and potentially you; those of us on the outside and without a biased view around the incident and the subsequent ramifications for both teams.
Frankly, no matter how frustrated or infuriated we may have become, few of us could have summed up the confusion around the decision and many others like it, as well as Western Sydney’s coach did in the post-match press conference.
After some very measured and balanced comments with reference to the obvious quality of the Victory team, a few bounces of the ball that may have gone against them and the impact of pressure in a football match, Stajcic was asked more specifically about the penalty that denied his team the three points.
When asked what he made of the penalty call, Stajcic’s response was as simple as it was brilliant.
“Look, to be honest, I don’t know what the rules are. That’s the starting point. I don’t know what’s handball, what’s not handball”, he said.
“I actually can’t argue it because I don’t know the rule, I don’t think they know the rule”, he added, in reference to the powers at be, the referees and those who oversee the interpretations applied to A-League matches on a weekly basis.
(Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Stajcic in his ever-calm and measured temperament summed up the situation and the confusion around a decision that could mean plenty across the course of a season, “They just do it on the spot, that is their decision and we’ve gotta live with it”.
It seems a rather absurd situation to have the people in control of professional teams unsure of the rules around which their players must operate. Frankly, it is something of an embarrassment for football.
Cricket has taken great strides in developing a system where clarity has been established for the most part. Tennis has removed the necessity for lines people and encouraged player blow-ups to be directed internally, rather than at the honest folk keen to volunteer up close at events.
Rugby league is far from a perfect science, but so much more is got right than wrong in the current era thanks to the use of video technology.
Rugby union might be a tough watch at times, yet the TMO is consistent in terms of application, despite some of the decisions appearing a little harsh when it comes to carding players and the impact on the offending team often being far too significant considering the offence.
Sadly, football remains something of a farce when it comes to the way the game is officiated. The majority of the planet detests VAR, immense inconsistency remains when referees review fouls and either upgrade or downgrade yellow and red cards and the issue of handball, as Stajcic pointed out expertly, is a mystery within itself.
Clisby made no attempt to make contact with the ball with his arm. He was falling to the ground and bracing himself for impact. The shot on goal was thumped directly into his body from close range and quite frankly, had the potential to injure his elbow.
Instead, the interpretation was that the Wanderers’ defender had handled the ball and that Victory should be gifted a goal off the back of his action.
Give me a break. As Stajcic alluded to and based on the evidence before us, does anyone actually know the rule?
The irony that Ryan Teague converted from the spot to draw the match level was not missed by those who witnessed his back-tracking and negative defending that allowed Nicolas Milanovic to score Western Sydney’s second goal.
Whilst simple to jump up and down and lose the plot in frustration at having lost points on a night when they were close to being in the bag, Stajcic once again, chose to reflect on the state of the game and deep problems within it, when it comes to officialdom and video intervention.
When he lauded the league a few moments later and spoke of the brilliant young players in it and how many deride the competition unnecessarily, he completed a superb mini-essay of the dual realities, both good and bad.
It seems to me that the youthful talent, skill and ability on show will not lessen and probably increase in the near future.
Sadly, the same can be said of the inconsistency in the way handball will be deciphered and the total number of decisions that will continue to mystify fans.
Football is such a more beautiful game when the so-called decision-makers are restricted in their roles.