Willie Collum certainly has his work cut out in his new role as Head of Referee Operations at the SFA.

The former match official has already had to admit to early errors from his officials during the opening weeks of the season, as The Celtic Star covered yesterday evening.

However, the audio from this clip where the referee appears to be coaching theRangers Tom Lawrence through the art of timing the tackle really beggar’s belief.

From a Rangers account on X.com we got this assessment: “Fair play to the referee in this clip, he’s talking to Tom Lawrence like a true teammate”. Then there’s the the ref’s post tackle confirmation to one Ross County player that Lawrence got a “big touch” on the ball, despite replays showing there was no contact whatsoever and Willie Collum having to admit his charge got that one badly wrong.

Back in 2017, one of Rugby’s multitude of rule changes saw England team face Italy in the Six Nations and confusion reign. England players were in a state of in-game paralysis as to whether they could handle the ball without punishment under the new rules and appeared to ask the French referee for assistance, to which match official Romain Poite, politely – and perhaps sarcastically – replied ‘I’m a referee, not a coach’.

Collum wasn’t asked to clarify whether the role of his referees was to guide the players through the rules of the game or whether that extended to in-game coaching, but unlike the French Rugby official, the referee at Hampden for this incident – Ross Hardie – appeared willing to coach even without a request being made from the player, and was then willing to turn a blind eye when said advice was ignored and a tackle from behind floored a player he was expected to protect.

Unsurprisingly this error was further compounded with theRangers scoring a goal a few seconds later but apparently it was not part of the same attacking phase of play and VAR was unable to intervene. What was it Ange Postecoglou said about the verbal gymnastics used in Scottish football to qualify poor decision making?

Pattern of Assistance became the stand-out phrase from last season, thanks to Alan Morrison’s excellent work on Celtic by Numbers and it appears it may well get plenty of airing again this campaign.

Willie Collum has been very visible in the mainstream media and amongst football’s stakeholders since taking up his role, and that is to be lauded, particularly when employed by an organisation that appears to believe transparency, accountability and communication are best avoided.

For what it’s worth Willie Collum’s early attempts to communicate refereeing decisions and to hold his hands up to some of his referee’s errors should be commended as a good start, after all I think he may well be the first to do so in Scottish football, but it seems ingrained behaviours will continue and defending instances like this certainly won’t lead to anything other than an extension of that well-documented pattern of assistance for one club.

His predecessor rushed into the BBC radio studios after the incredible outcry on this decision shown below, to allow a Kyogo goal against Hearts, who felt that it was offside. Yet Sky Sports camera could not determine one way or the other whether Kyogo was onside.

Willie Collum last night also appeared on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard and discussed the elephant in the room in Scottish football which was covered on The Celtic Star this morning.

READ THIS…“Where do you draw the line?” Willie Collum on the elephant in the room in Scottish football

Niall J

READ THIS…Skullduggery is alive and well despite the introduction of VAR

COMING SOON ON CELTIC STAR BOOKS…CELTIC IN THE THIRTIES, VOL 1&2 BY MATT CORR…