Award-winning sports broadcaster Gerard Whateley has unloaded on the A-League’s decision to resume the abandoned Melbourne Derby tonight.
The now-infamous meeting between City and Victory came to an abrupt end in the 21st minute, with the former up 1-0, after a disgraceful pitch invasion.
It followed days of angst over the decision to sell the Grand Final hosting rights to Sydney.
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Rather than penalise Victory for their fans’ actions, including the attack on City keeper Tom Glover, by awarding full points to their rivals the game will be resumed from where it was halted.
That saw Whateley gobsmacked.
“It is nothing short of appalling that it will be reprised tonight absurdly resuming in the 22nd minute with City leading Victory 1-0,” he said on his SEN show.
“The game should have been forfeited by Victory in the sanctions that were issued.
“The Australian Professional Leagues should be doing all it can to remove the stain of those events, not actively revisiting them.
“It makes me wonder about the judgment of all involved running that competition.
“And it sure as hell suggests Victory has lost touch with the mood of the town that for a long time invested so much pride in their endeavours and successes.
“I’m quite appalled by what is going to transpire tonight.
“How on earth could you seek to complete a game that ended like this?
“A small but distinct window still exist to call this off, rather than go ahead with what amounts to a disgrace.
“An affront to the sporting culture of Melbourne.”
Meanwhile Melbourne City captain Scott Jamieson can play in Wednesday night’s derby against Melbourne Victory despite being sent off in his side 1-1 weekend draw with the Newcastle Jets.
Jamieson’s red card for two bookable offences brought with it a one-game suspension.
However, he will serve that ban next Monday when City host Wellington Phoenix at AAMI Park.
With Wednesday night’s derby recommencing in the 21st minute with City leading 1-0 after 20 minutes of the match was played in December before the pitch invasion that brought a halt to proceedings, Jamieson, who was on the bench that night, has been cleared to play.
And with a host of players from both teams who played in December either injured or having left their clubs, Jamieson can play from the recommencement of proceedings in the derby.
While City coach Rado Vidosic was happy to have his skipper available on Wednesday, he wasn’t pleased at not officially knowing that Jamieson could play until after his side had completed its training session on Tuesday.
“It’s so confusing, isn’t it?” Vidosic said.
“Today at 11am after training we got a written note (stating) that ‘Jamo’ is eligible to play.
“They wait for our training to finish to let us know that someone who got red-carded last game is available for selection, which is unbelievable, to be honest.”
City will open up a five-poin lead at the top of the table if they turn their lead into a win on Wednesday night.
However, that’s far from inevitable such has been City’s drop in form in recent weeks and the Victory’s sudden resurgence.
Vidosic’s men led the competition by nine points in late February, but that advantage has been reduced to just two points, with second-placed Adelaide United now the form team of the competition.
The Victory have also found form, with the former cellar dwellers having won back-to-back matches.
Another win on Wednesday night would lift them into seventh spot on the ladder and just one point outside the top six.
Victory coach Tony Popovic said his team had “moved on” from the pitch invasion that resulted in a host of sanctions being slapped on the club.
“The only thing that remains the same is that from that match, we start at the point that the game stopped – everything else is different,” Popovic said.
“We’re in better condition now. At that point the team was very different.
“We had a lot of injuries and players that weren’t in physical shape to really play at the level that we expect.
“Now we feel that the team is strong. The players that have come in have made a difference.
“Recently we’ve picked up two very important results. We believe that we can carry on and improve our performance again.”
