Quit ref criticism, FA tells ALM coaches

Complaining A-League Men coaches have been urged to quit lambasting referees in their press conferences, with Football Australia revealing only a handful of managers have given them feedback on officiating this season.

Refereeing was in the spotlight over the weekend, with Central Coast manager Nick Montgomery and Macarthur boss Dwight Yorke raising concerns with the performance of Alireza Faghani in the Mariners’ 2-1 win.

Montgomery said Faghani’s refereeing was “a worry for both teams” while Yorke was frustrated that VAR wasn’t used to verify two of his side’s penalty claims.

Melbourne Victory coach Tony Popovic was also vocal about a decision not to award his side a penalty for a potential handball in their 1-1 draw with Adelaide United.

Managers can speak to the referee directly after the game with the help of the match commissioner, contact FA head of referees Nathan Magill personally, or fill out a feedback form to critique an official’s performance.

But Magill said the third option had an extremely low take-up with coaches, who have instead used their press conferences to question the referee’s performance.

“The coaches are asked to rate some key areas of the game such as player safety and if they thought the referee was consistent,” Magill told AAP.

“I think we’ve got about roughly 10 per cent (of the forms) filled in, in all the matches completed so far across men’s and women’s.

“I’m always pretty protective of my people and I watch all 11 matches and I’m trying to help my team improve their performance.

“I thought they reacted well to the feedback from the week before where they held a high standard for fouls and yellow cards and they still get criticised in a public space.

“To find out information retrospectively through press conferences, doesn’t allow us to have a formal conversation, which is what we really want.”

Magill claimed all of the penalty appeals in the Macarthur-Central Coast games were checked with VAR, despite the fact Faghani didn’t consult the monitor.

“The referee will communicate back to the VAR and the VAR will check to see if what they’ve described is different to what they can see on the footage,” he said.

“In those cases there’s been no obvious error and they’ve cleared the incident.”