AUSTRALIA — Australia's Football Federation admitted that the Video Assistant Referee technology (VAR) they used encountered a technical failure that led to a controversial goal.
According to the federation, the incident took place at the grand final of Australia's A league between Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets earlier this month.
When Victory was delivering the ball from a free-kick play, the software that VAR system provider Hawk-eye uses crashed, causing the cameras to partially lose 30 seconds of footage.
During the glitch, three players in the Victory's outfit were already standing in offside position, and the referees did not signal offside either.
This failure allowed Victory's players to take the chance at controlling the ball, which later led to the controversial goal that helped the team clinch the league title.
Greg O'Rourke, the head of Australia's A-League said the technology failed on this occasion and the broadcast angles required were unavailable. They are working with Hawk-Eye's UK head office to prevent this from happening again.
Hawk-Eye's Australian branch declined to comment on the glitch, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
VAR was introduced as a technology-based solution to correct human referees' errors when they need to make a decision in just split seconds.
Last month, FIFA announced that Hawk-Eye will be the VAR system provider and will feature its camera prominently in all the FIFA World Cup fixtures in Russia this summer.
