Australia Cup: Bill Papastergiadis: VAR needs to be implemented in such games as the Semi
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
The people of South Melbourne Hellas have been left with a bitter aftertaste after their recent elimination by Macarthur. The match was decided by a questionable penalty and the fans are not very happy about it.
It seems like even on a beautiful evening celebrating football and Greek culture, they couldn’t escape disappointment.
The stadium was packed with politicians, former footballers, and of course, the prestigious president of the Greek community, Bill Papastergiadis.
Looks like even VIPs couldn’t buy a fair result.
We contacted Bill Papastergiadis in order to get a statement from him regarding last Sunday’s big match.
“South can justifiably consider itself unlucky in being eliminated by the awarding against it of a penalty in the last minutes of the match. Many commentators, opposition coaches and administrators have contacted the Club expressing their disappointment at the referee’s decision, which many described as at best ‘soft’”.
“Importantly, depriving South the opportunity to potentially progress to the final and possibly win the Australia Cup has enormous implications. The winner of the Australia Cup derives significant financial and commercial support as it guarantees a place in the Asia Championship. I am not saying South would have won the Australia Cup, but rather it seems to have been deprived of an opportunity to do so.”
Papastergiadis claims that the matches between NPL teams and A-League teams this year demonstrated a negligible difference between the two categories.
“Souths match with MacArthur and matches by other NPL teams around Australia including Heidelberg and Oakleigh reveal that the gap between the A League clubs and the next tier is minimal. This begs the immediate question, what is Football Australia doing to unite and integrate all tiers of football in Australia. With the performance of our national team being in the spotlight , now is the time for Football Australia to integrate the code nationally. We cannot delay the Second Tier any further. The crowd support is there as is the talent, hence Football Australia needs to immediately prioritise supporting all tiers and create opportunities for those clubs to be promoted. The A League cannot be considered a protected species to the exclusion of 730 clubs that participated in the Australia Cup. VAR needs to be implemented in such games as the Semi Final given the implications for Clubs.”
The original article: belongs to NEOS KOSMOS .
