Wellington Phoenix are seeking legal advice over the video referee intervention that saw defender Tim Payne red-carded out of their match against Perth Glory and suspended from this week's encounter with Melbourne Victory.
Payne was initially shown a yellow card for tripping striker David Williams just outside the penalty area, but as Perth lined up their free-kick, referee Lachlan Keevers was alerted by his assistants to review the foul and eventually upgraded his yellow to a red for 'denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity'.
Leading at the time, the shorthanded Phoenix were unable to hold out their opponents, eventually conceding an equaliser in the 80th minute for a 2-2 draw.
"It is the Wellington Phoenix's view that the VAR should not have got involved and due process was not followed," said the club. "It is the club's contention that there was no clear and obvious error made by the referee, and therefore, the VAR should not have intervened."
The Phoenix filed an 'obvious error' application to Football Australia, which has been overturned by the A-League independent match review panel.
But the panel wasn't able to rule on the video referee's intervention, which the club believes is the key issue.
"This needs to happen as a matter of urgency, but there also needs to be a review of the disciplinary and dispute regulations that do not reflect the laws of the game," said Phoenix general manager David Dome.
"The VAR interventions often appear too arbitrary and certainlyt vary, depending on who the officials are."
"There are regulations that officials need to follow and there needs to be consistency across the A-Leagues.
"Furthermore, the appeals process needs to be revised. Players are guilty until proved innocent and the natural law provision of 'beyond reasonable doubt' does not seem to apply in the application of football regulations."
The Phoenix have been somewhat plagued by red cards across both men's and women's teams in recent weeks. The men lost both Bozhidar Kraev and Nicholas Pennington in their chaotic 1-0 win over Sydney FC earlier this month, both in contentious circumstances.
Kraev exited for a second yellow card in the same match, while Pennington was ejected, after clashing with counterpart Max Burgess, who only received yellow.
The Phoenix women lost midfielder Emma Rolston, after an ugly exchange with Perth rival Ella Mastrantonio, who was also red-carded, while defender Kate Maria Taylor also earnt an early shower in the weekend's 3-3 draw with Brisbane Roar.
