Keeper Ante Covic was sent off after just two minutes and defender Matthew Foschini followed minutes later as referee Ben Williams showed a flurry of red and yellow cards.

The match review panel rubbed salt into the wound when they added an extra week onto Foschini's mandatory one week ban for try to get his dismissal overturned, claiming the club had no ground to appeal.

The club has reacted furiously to the decision, and demanded an overhaul of the system.

But FFA referees director Mark Shield justified the system and its decisions, and the performance of Ben Williams.

"The clubs and coaches prior to the season asked the referees to protect the safety of the players," he said.

"We made it clear at the start of the year that the referees will be deeming tackles which endanger the safety of the player as serious foul play.

"Under the laws of the game, serious foul play resulted in a red card."

Shield said that players had to take accountability for their actions and that Foschini had caused his own troubles by committing the foul in the first place.

"It's been independently verified by the Match Review Panel as a red card offence," Shield said.

"Essentially he played the man, and the way that the tackle came in, he risked the referee deeming that as serious foul play and that's what happened on Saturday night."

Despite referee Ben Williams' controversial performance in the match on Saturday night, Shield backed his man in his decision making.

"I think there were two very big decisions that we made on Saturday night," he said. "Ben doesn't get the benefit of the replay but my initial reaction was that they were both red cards.

"I think he handled the game very well. Obviously it was a high-profile game. Two very high-profile incidents in terms of the decisions that needed to be made.

"Both decisions were independently verified by the Match Review Panel, so we have to be happy with his performance."

Shield also defended Peter Green's decision to award a late penalty to Sydney FC in a match the Sky Blues won 3-2, a decision criticised by Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg.

"The penalty decision was made for a trip by Peter Green, by No.27 for Gold Coast, on Michael Beauchamp, and I could see no problems with the penalty. It was a fair call," Shield said.

Shield said both Green and Williams would be missing from this weekend's A-League round as they will be overseeing World Cup qualifiers between Iraq and China and Jordan versus Singapore respectively.