Wellington Phoenix head coach Gemma Lewis has criticised Football Australia (FA) for its delay in handling the club's emergency goalkeeper signing request, saying the A-League Women's competition risks looking "real Mickey Mouse" as a result.
Last week, New Zealand's Football Ferns called up Wellington Phoenix's first-choice goalkeeper Lily Alfeld to take part in the SheBelieves Cup in the United States.
With just one other dedicated goalkeeper registered with the club, the Phoenix sent a request to Football Australia — the regulator of the A-Leagues — for an emergency signing who could sit in reserve for second-choice keeper, Brianna Edwards, during their round 12 match against Adelaide United on Thursday night.
But despite daily calls and follow-up emails in the ensuing week, the club received no response.
"We've heard nothing," Lewis said on Wednesday morning.
"Since we put in the exemption, we've called FA every single day and still haven't heard anything back. They haven't declined it or accepted it.
"And now obviously it's too late because [...] to get someone in, they'd obviously have to have an ECG and be medically cleared and stuff like that to be able to be signed and sit on the bench.
"So they've essentially forced our hand. We've got no other option than to put an outfield player on the bench, which we're pretty gutted about, to be honest. And also gutted at the complete lack of response."
It took until 5pm on Wednesday for Wellington to be told that their request had been denied, which club general manager David Dome confirmed on Twitter.
The denied request meant the club was forced to list an out-field player as a reserve goalkeeper for the match against Adelaide.
"It's such a hard ask to ask anyone to do it, and whoever ends up doing it is going to be absolutely taking one for the team and being a hero for the team," Lewis said.
"We just didn't want to put them in this situation because it means somebody you would have utilised on the field now has to sit on the bench as a keeper wearing a goalkeeper strip, which makes everything look real Mickey Mouse.
"Then, in a worst-case scenario and something happens to Bri, we're putting someone at risk because we're asking them to come onto the field as a goalkeeper with zero training and throw them straight in the deep end.
"We weren't even asking for a rule change. We were just asking for an exemption under the extreme circumstance of what we're dealing with in the league.
"People seemed like they understood that it was a bad look for the league, not just us. But we've got to a point now where, with the [delayed] response, our hands are tied."
In the end, the Phoenix's game did not go ahead — the match between Wellington and Adelaide was first delayed and then called off due to storm conditions in Wollongong.
Despite the reprieve from the weather, the debacle draws attention to the additional regulatory hoops Wellington have been asked to jump through in order to participate in the A-League Women's competition this season, particularly around the classification of players as internationals.
While FA has not publicly commented on the decision, Lewis had previously said that according to FA regulations, like-for-like replacements in such circumstances only applied to players called up to represent Australia, not New Zealand.
Further, the club is unable to add extra New Zealand players (even in exceptional circumstances) because it has already exhausted its allocated visa spots, which were expanded to allow the Phoenix to sign several more NZ players than other clubs in the league this season.
However, there is a regulatory clause that would have allowed the club to sign a temporary replacement goalkeeper outside of the window because it is a specialised position.
This temporary signing would have had to be from New Zealand, and would have only required the approval of FA and the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), bypassing the extra layers of international transfer regulation put in place by FIFA.
It is unclear whether or not Wellington was aware of this clause, chose not to utilise it, or simply ran out of time to do so.
