As a player you take things to the limit, but to score in such a way was straight up cheating. Having looked at where the Ref was on the free kick he should have been able to make the correct call of disallowing the goal. As for the game Sydney were playing most of the football BUT I dont buy into Sydney would have won. There are so many games where a team has all the play but cant get it in the back of the net and the other team come through with a goal... It changed how the Phoenix were playing, which in all honesty looked like Wellington were looking to play defensive and sneak a goal

How many times do we go to the tmo in rugby and league to check the grounding of the ball. Cant recall a player ever owning up to not grounding the ball on any of the disallowed tries. And that happens with NZ teams as well, so cut the holier that though crap. He screwed up, hes got to live with it and it will stick with him for the rest of his career.

The thing about that handball goal is if it was a Phoenix player who scored it he wouldn't have owned up either and we wouldn't be calling him a cheat!

The way that Payne celebrated after the ball went into the goal off his forearm reminded me of the Brad Haddin incident two years ago, where he unintentionally knocked the bails off with his glove and then proceeded to play along with the dismissal (despite pausing for a couple of seconds trying to decide what to do), instead of doing the honest thing and telling the batsman and umpires that he was the one who knocked the bails off. Payne realised straight away that the ball came off his arm yet he still ran off claiming the goal rather than owning up to the referee. That is what I find disgraceful about the handball goal and the glovegate saga, a complete lack of accountability and honesty from the players in question in both incidents, and they both happened at pivotal moments in their respective games.

Until soccer gets with the times and allows technology into its decision making its pointless even discussing these issues. Players will cheat and they need to be caught on camera.

Mark #17 You have a great idea. Phoenix should sign him, then sit him on the bench for the next year.

As a Phoenix fan I am gutted with the whole incident. No, Payne isn't going to own up to it, but he looked guilty as hell as he spun away. We will never know what the result would have been had he owned up. Were the Phoenix going to hang on for a 1-1 draw, were they going to steal a win? Were Sydney going to find a winner? All speculation. It's over, Sydney get to go to the final, Phoenix finished a very creditable 3rd. Bring on next season.

He is Australian. What do you expect, they are cheats. Sad thing is Sydney were playing well enough not to have to resort to that level. That player will always be known as the cheat who claimed the goal that wasn't.

I'm guessing those who are using the "nut there was 2 goals in it" have never played in a knock out comp before. Because when you go a goal behind you need to take bigger risks to get that goal back, and guess what that makes it easier for the opposition to score another on the break.

So yeah Payne's goal was very crucial, but again I feel the blame lies with FIFA for not allowing the extra official behind the Goal. FIFA need to get of there sorry A's and fix this issue.

Teza, You want to take the log out of your eye. If you watched game 4 of the Chappel Hadlee series you would have heard quite a bit of girlie whining from the commentators after Ricky Ponting was given not out LBW. There is karma in sport. Don't make it personal, it just tars you with the same brush

Thats sport and everyone needs to move on. Of a far greater concern is the fact that Sydney a city of 4.5 million simply doesnt care. A crowd of 13,500 was pathetic. It begs a question about the future of the competition given that the NSW rugby team had 35,000 at its game which is just round robbin not finals and the local Rugby League games consistently doubled the football crowd

. Wellington has treated the Phoenix as an extension of the 7s and they need to export some of that party across the Tasman.

@Bob - a few years ago Robbie Fowler went down in the area and the ref gave a penalty. Fowler told the ref that he had fallen and there was no contact but the ref said he couldn't change his mind. Fowler then intentionally kicked the ball wide of the goal. He was given a "special" fair play award from FIFA. It does happen but at the end of the day though, there are far too few occurences of this to do any good.