Terry Maddaford: Simulation rulings made on instinct are on shaky ground

Sydney FC goalkeeper Liam Reddy is sent off with a red card which has since been overturned. Photo / Getty Images

Soccer fans will be pondering what next after the match review panel unilaterally changed three on-field decisions from two week four A-League matches.

In a radical move, the independent panel scrapped the red card handed Sydney FC goalkeeper Liam Reddy for a foul on Central Coast's Patricio Perez, deciding instead to slap the Argentine playmaker, on debut for the Mariners, with a two-match ban for diving or, as they prefer, simulation.

End of story. No avenue for appeal and this is a call made without any input from referee Matthew Breeze - in his 100th A-League game - or the players involved.

The panel, apparently on instinct and after viewing television footage, made their decision on what appears, at best, very shaky grounds.

Perez, who had shown out as a player of real class in his brief cameo, must feel aggrieved. The footage was, at best, unclear but apparently good enough for the panel to make their call and send the player to the sideline and wipe Reddy's slate clean.

No one is condoning diving or any such acts but if the panel is right and Perez is guilty and Reddy innocent then should not Sydney FC, leading 1-0 at the time, feel just as aggrieved.

If it was not a foul on Reddy's part then the penalty would not have been awarded and Perez would not have scored what proved to be the equaliser.

Sadly, it puts the reputation of the league's leading referee under the spotlight. Breeze, much closer to the action, surely had the clearer view and ruled accordingly.

At AAMI Park the story was the same, if not different.

Rookie referee Kurt Ams raised the ire of the Melbourne Heart players and fans when he ruled their defender Kliment Taseski had brought down Perth Glory's Michael Baird in the fourth minute of stoppage time at the end of the match.

Interestingly, he took no action card-wise against Taseski and watched as Robbie Fowler banged the ball home from the penalty spot to salvage a 2-2 draw for the visiting Glory.

That incident, for some inexplicable reason, was also reviewed by the panel.

Again, without player or match official input, they ruled that Baird had "dived" and handed him a two-match ban for simulation.

The Heart's turn to feel aggrieved.

If it was simulation the penalty should not have been awarded and the home team would have won 2-1 and taken their first win in their debut season. Instead Perth snatched a 2-2 draw and the point which kept them at the top of the table.

Imagine if these two "incidents" had come in the last round of the regular season with the minor premiership (and the chance of a home grand final) and the last spot in the play-offs at stake.

Such calls are unlikely to be made here as there is no provision for the intervention of an outside body.

The referees have all the power with their decisions, apart from rare mistaken identity, final and not open to challenge.

That is another story.