Last week, bombshell news hit the A-Leagues when Macarthur announced the departure of their captain and star striker Valère Germain mid-season. Last weekend, the A-League Men saw some questionable officiating, leading to murmurs that the French striker correctly cited refereeing as an issue contributing to his departure from the competition. Well, I'm here to tell you that, quite frankly, Germain's stance on referees and his behaviour during his time down under and in the aftermath of his departure was absolute rubbish.
Valère Germain unceremoniously departed the A-League Men last week. (Image: Tahlia Daly)
Macarthur FC are a club that, since their inception into the A-Leagues, has been shrouded in various forms of controversy, and seemingly, no matter what they do, they cannot escape it in any way, shape, or form. The Bulls were once again associated with a big story in a negative sense last week when they announced that star striker Valere Germain would be leaving the club.
Though Macarthur themselves stated that Germain's departure was due to the Frenchman's desire to pursue an overseas opportunity - he's just been announced as a new player for Sanfreece Hiroshima in Japan - hours before their announcement, an AAP article reported that Germain was departing due to "Australian refereeing standards."
In addition, the article came across as if Macarthur saw eye to eye with their captain on the refereeing in the A-League Men not being good enough, or at least not up to the striker's supposed standards (whatever they are), with chairman Gino Marra telling AAP that it was "disappointing" Germain was "frustrated by the refereeing", and that he is "sure many fans and clubs feel the same way."
Now, later, I will address the other theories that have been floated on what may have happened, that Germain's exit has nothing to do with refereeing standards, but for the moment, let's assume it was the primary reason - which by all accounts, it was at the least a contributing factor, even if you believe the Bulls have tried to use it to 'cover-up' some potentially poor management of the striker's future on their part.
I mean, Germain, for some unknown reason, agreed to do a sit-down interview with Channel 10 following his departure to, I guess, 'explain' why he decided to leave the club.
Remember, at this point, almost every fan and pundit following the league has slammed the Frenchman, while he also already left Macarthur. It's one of the rare occasions where leaving silently and not fronting the media so as not to further diminish your already poor reputation would have been the wiser choice. All he did was make himself the subject of more criticism - rightly so.
"I had to think again after this game," he told Tara Rushton, stating that he had to rethink his future after being suspended for making a lewd gesture towards an official in his last game for the club against Western United.
Now, sometimes, these Match Review Panel (MRP) decisions can fly under the radar, and it's probably because of the league's lack of mainstream media coverage that they don't receive a lot of reporting. I'm sure some have since gone back to that Western game, to the "90+6th minute", as stated in the Football Australia media release and seen Germain, after an obvious offside decision against teammate Marin Jakolis, make a very distasteful gesture towards the linesman. If you go to the replay on Paramount+ and freeze the picture at the match time, 95:23, you will see what he did clear as day, which I opine it would be safe to assume was the incident the MRP reviewed.
Further to that, he then, at full-time, confronts the match officials, and it seems he had to be held back by his teammates.
When I'm watching the sequence from when he made the lewd act to full-time, I'm genuinely wondering what the guy's problem is. Was he mad about something else that day? Are you angry about your teammates' inability to finish the many chances they had at the end of the game? The linesman made a clear offside call, and nothing else in the aftermath could have set any rational footballer off like that.
Thus, he was rightly suspended for two games (as any player would've been for that act). However, it was referred to the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee (D&CE). This committee can impose a more significant sanction on top of the minimum one initially handed down by the MRP.
The inappropriate gesture Germain (bottom) made towards one of the assistant referees in Macarthur's 2-2 draw with Western United three weeks ago.
As Germain terminated his contract before the D&CE hearing, it never happened. Perhaps, and this is pure speculation, he and Macarthur got wind before the hearing that he was facing a significantly extended sanction, and once he saw the writing on the wall thought, screw it, I'm out of here. There is a nice bit of accountability from Germain, a captain and a leader in a squad that, like all in the current competition, consists of young players looking for role models.
In the interview with Rushton, further showing off his incredible self-awareness and accountability (not), Germain then states "probably yes" when asked if he would've stayed in the competition had he not been suspended over the gesture.
You know what, Valère, you're right; you are the victim here, not the officials. I'm sure that when you were playing in Ligue 1, the officials were more than happy to allow you to vent your frustration about decisions by gesturing towards your crotch. It's undoubtedly an Australian officiating issue; you wouldn't have been suspended for the same act in France. I mean, seriously? Get a grip.
Now, the AAP article also reported that Germain "privately voiced concerns that he was being targeted by rival players and that officials did not properly protect him."
I've watched every Macarthur game this season. Of course, you cannot always see what might be happening off the ball on the broadcast. If I were to level with Germain in any way, against Auckland away on the 1st of February, I felt Tommy Smith and Nando Pijnaker were overtly aggressive in defending Germain with shirt pulling and all the usual dark arts when the ball went into the Frenchman's feet.
Outside of that ONE game, I never thought he was subjected to overexuberant 'targeting' by opposing defenders. It's a load of crap.
There's also something else that should be addressed when speaking about refereeing in the league more broadly, which is linked to this situation.
Last weekend in the A-League Men, we probably saw a couple of missed calls from referees. Roderick Miranda and Nando Pijnaker were lucky to remain on the pitch in their respective derbies. The Portuguese defender should have been shown a red after unnecessarily flinging his hand onto Andreas Kuen's face in the 53rd minute. Meanwhile, Pijanker, after being booked two minutes in, clearly pulled Kosta Barbarouses back from running onto the ball in the 27th minute, which should have been a second yellow card (Barbarouses bizarrely didn't even get a free-kick).
Coaches put forward other gripes, but this is where some of the moaning about refereeing across the league is becoming tiresome. Mark Jackson complained about the decision to award the Western Sydney Wanderers a penalty for Adam Pavlesic's challenge on Marcus Antonsson (which was a clear foul), with Jackson further explaining how "not every club has been contacted" by Football Australia's Head of Referees Jon Moss after the latter said in a sit-down with media last week that clubs are "more than happy" with the officiating.
I can't offer any insights into the level of communication between Moss and the clubs, as I have no idea about it. Maybe Jackson and the Central Coast Mariners have a point; who knows?
However, Jackson acknowledged immediately after lamenting the officiating that the particular decision had no impact on a game where the Mariners were second-best.
The Pavlesic penalty decision was correct, but generally speaking, it feels as if decisions having no impact is precisely the point about the refereeing this season—it feels like, less than ever, questionable officiating is having a drastic effect on matches (there have been some instances, like Western United not being awarded an obvious penalty earlier in the season against Adelaide United or Zinedine Machach's controversial red card in the Big Blue in late December).
Referees should always endeavour to get every call right, but that is impossible; we all know this. Last season was way worse regarding referees having too much influence on the game. Meanwhile, Moss made it very clear publicly before the season started that the referees have emphasised allowing games to flow by swallowing their whistle more and allowing increased levels of physicality between teams.
Firstly, this move has undoubtedly helped improve the product, and it is a common sense approach to allow for a more free-flowing game in a league as transitional as the A-League Men.
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Secondly, for those who haven't or didn't get the memo (Germain), it was apparent after a few rounds that the threshold of what is deemed a foul had been lifted, and most players have adjusted to that. If Moss had not informed clubs of this change before the season started and is not being transparent right now, that would not help, absolutely, and in that case, clubs would be right to voice concerns.
But it certainly does not feel like every club thinks the refereeing is not 'up to standard', which is what Marra and even Jackson made it sound like in Saturday's press conference. Wellissol has probably been iced out from minutes at the Newcastle Jets because Rob Stanton got so fed up with him stopping on the ball every time he received a slither of contact.
Ufuk Talay, who is probably one of the more boisterous characters on the touchline in voicing complaints to the fourth official, even praised Shaun Evans after the recent Sydney Derby for how he officiated the game and allowed it to flow. And he was right; the game was a pulsating, end-to-end 3-3 draw, absent of controversial decisions.
But the point I wanted to address here was back to Germain, and I'm led to believe there have been murmurs online since this past weekend's action suggesting he was right to point out the supposed poor officiating in the competition - I even saw some comments trying to reason with his decision last week when the news dropped.
Again, citing officiating as a reason for leaving a competition is petty and pathetic, and in this case, it's just plain wrong. Germain may have his gripes about our referees, but to suggest they are so bad he can't even step onto the pitch anymore like it's a disease plaguing the competition, I think, says more about his inability to adapt his game, which a player of his quality should be able to do.
Further, players and coaches always talk about how you can't get frustrated about a referee's decisions when it's out of your control or how it's more important to focus on why the team's performance was sub-par instead of complaining about the officiating. But then, and I'm talking about a minority, as soon as they do something deserving of a suspension, the knives are suddenly out for the referees because God forbid you admit you made a mistake and own up to it.
The ones that do are the characters we should want in our competition. The ones that don't, like Germain, well, goodbye.
In Germain's case, he is also someone we have seen being disrespectful towards officials numerous times, so many aren't losing sleep over him leaving.
For example, back in mid-January, when Macarthur beat Newcastle 3-1 at McDonald Jones Stadium, Germain seemed to very clearly stare down Shaun Evans upon scoring the Bulls' equaliser. Why? Again, I watched that game and have no idea what could have sparked that behaviour.
And when you consistently act that way towards the referees, they are human beings at the end of the day. Although they should not let their emotions prevail, it would only be natural if Evans took the act of being stared down, or any other remarks, the wrong way and subconsciously decided to lift the contact threshold for tackles on Germain. You unnecessarily create your problems.
It doesn't seem like many feel much sympathy towards Macarthur, too - there are some other factors probably at play with that, which I won't discuss here - perhaps because this season, they've been one of the bigger culprits of poor conduct on the pitch and are seemingly founding members of the 'the referees are killing us' club. I'd imagine many onlookers are fed up with it.
Talk about things going under the radar; many might have forgotten or didn't see it at the time, but Mile Sterjovski's assistant, Christophe Gamel, was suspended by the MRP for six games earlier this season for committing the offence of "assault including physical and aggressive behaviour" following full-time in Macarthur's 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle back in October.
Sterjovski has not done anything like that, but in probably half of his press conferences this season, he's made passive-aggressive comments about the officiating or bemoaned decisions, most of which were fair.
The most bizarre example was when Sterjovski complained post-match about Macarthur not receiving a penalty in their clash away to Auckland recently for a tackle by Neyder Moreno on Chris Ikonomidis. The Bulls were 1-0 down at the time, and it was a penalty that should have been given, but then a minute later, Jake Hollman equalised anyway; again, the missed call had no impact on the dynamic of a match Macarthur deservedly lost anyway as they were second-best.
If you're constantly whinging but are genuinely hard-done by every week by game-changing decisions, that's more acceptable. But no one wants to hear constant whinging when it's not substantiated.
How about Sydney FC's Léo Sena, who is by far the most fouled player in the competition, having been fouled 62 times already this campaign, a figure which is 27 ahead of the second most fouled player, and most of the time he is legitimately fouled. I've never heard one peep from him or Talay about refereeing standards. If anything, Sena's found a way to use it to his advantage and get the Sky Blues more set-piece opportunities in promising areas.
For those thinking, "Yeah, but the refereeing in Australia is worse than in Europe, come on," that is a subjective opinion. In some countries, it might be accurate, but you've missed the point of this situation; this is about referees not accepting players or clubs pushing them around or acting like there's some conspiracy against them, particularly when it's been well-documented that in recent years it has become much more challenging to garner interest in refereeing in Australia because of this very behaviour.
Also, if you're an English Premier League fan, are they much better than Australian officials? If they are the same, then Mohamed Salah should have considered leaving the competition after Michael Oliver's horrendous performance in the recent Merseyside Derby between Everton and Liverpool. That's how this works, right?
Yeah, you see, he's a proper professional, and he and his teammates, though frustrated with the officiating of that game, understand there are other reasons why they didn't play their best and ultimately didn't win that day.
On the final point of other reasons, perhaps Germain was not that frustrated with the officiating, and it's been blown out of proportion to cover up another more significant reason for his exit.
In that Channel 10 interview mentioned earlier in the piece, he does say, "I don't even know if it's a good direction" when discussing his decision to leave the league. Was he not even sure he wanted to go? Maybe he was flustered, but it was a bizarre line.
A theory that has been floated is that perhaps Germain wanted to leave in January, but the club did not grant him an exit (he said in the Channel 10 interview that refereeing was not the main reason). Thus, he became frustrated with the situation and used his suspension as an excuse to leave.
That is feasible, but Macarthur also signed Saîf Eddine-Khaoui in the window, a player who was previously teammates with Germain in France and, you assume, was brought in not just as a Jed Drew replacement but to form an exciting tandem with Germain.
Why would they sign a player with a prior relationship with Germain, who could help him settle down in Australia if they knew the striker was starting to lean towards the Sanfreece move? And why would Germain be happy with the refereeing reason being used for his exit when it clearly makes him look worse than the club?
It could have been a money thing. It would probably be safe to assume that Sanfreece Hiroshima are paying Germain a higher salary than his one at the Bulls.
Regardless of the genuine reason behind why he has left, whichever way you look at it, it seems Germain being an issue was a common denominator. Although he is a quality player, the league will always be better off ridding itself of a player with such a lack of accountability and self-awareness.
When the competition is also in a period where many young players are receiving first-team opportunities, clubs need their experienced players to be role models for them, not whingers spitting the dummy when things don't go their way.
See you later, Valère, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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