It’s never going to catch on here is it? Although it really should. Howard Webb, the former Premier League referee, returned to English football recently to begin his new role as the first chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – and one of his key focuses of course is the use of VAR.
Webb has overseen a lighter touch use of VAR down south since the World-Cup in Qatar, yet that doesn’t mean controversy hasn’t followed – as we saw this weekend with both Brighton and Arsenal having cause to question those using the new technology, even if not the technology itself.
Yet Webb hasn’t maintained the sort of radio silence the SFA takes in Scotland – unless it’s a hair’s breadth possible offside decision regarding Celtic, then Crawford Allan appears quite happy to head onto the Radio Scotland airwaves to ‘discuss’ until his wee blue heart’s content.
Instead, Webb has fronted up and offered to investigate and advise on just what went wrong in some key matches in the EPL this weekend and to feed back to the clubs concerned as to what lessons have been learned.
You might be able to see fault and hear of hierarchical solutions being afforded, regarding the on-field decision making and those using VAR over the course of a controversial weekend for VAR down south, but don’t expect the same in Scotland. After all transparency and accountability when it comes to Scottish football is something that is simply always done behind closed doors, with Kyogo’s goal against Hearts last season very much the outlier – strange that.
And former Celt Kris Commons has used his Scottish Daily Mail column to put the boot into refereeing standards in Scotland, something he feels is being highlighted by the introduction of VAR shining a spotlight on the standard of those using the technology rather than the technology itself.
“From the moment VAR was introduced in Scottish football in October, we always knew it was going to cause plenty of controversy. It was never going to solve all of the problems, not when the basic level of officiating in the Premiership is so poor. VAR can’t turn bad referees into good ones.
“But let’s not pretend these issues exist purely in Scotland. Controversy with VAR exists wherever you go, as we’ve seen from a weekend of some utterly shambolic decisions in the English Premier League.
“I was watching Match of the Day on Saturday night and it almost felt like every single game had some sort of howler in it. Some of the decisions were scandalous, almost comically bad. Offside lines being drawn in the wrong place, failing to spot other players in offside positions, failing to spot blatant handballs, it was horrendous.
“Howard Webb, the former referee who is now the head honcho of VAR and how it’s used, has contacted Arsenal and Brighton basically to apologise. He admitted to ‘significant errors’ that cost both clubs three points in their respective games against Brentford and Crystal Palace. It’s pretty embarrassing. Arsenal are currently chasing a Premier League title. VAR was supposed to put an end to all of these controversial decisions.
“But when you’ve got people who can’t even operate the system properly, what chance have you got?”
Can you imagine the SFA publicly admitting there have been ‘significant errors’ in Scotland? Nope me neither. After all, if they did, we’d expect a programme of refresher training to fix the problems and we might see Scottish football being refereed with at least a modicum of common sense.
Yet the ‘controversy’ in Scotland appears to centre around all clubs bar one. The one who has gone fifty plus games n Scotland without conceding a penalty and one that appears to allow their central defender to use his hands so often he’s possibly pulled of more saves than Alan McGregor this campaign.
Indeed, we’ve seen in the past (Dougie-Dougie anyone?) what happens when Scottish refereeing comes under any real scrutiny – they go on strike, as a petulant and deflective response to calls for fair officiating for all.
Howard Webb has done as all good leaders should. He’s seen a problem, highlighted it, and intends to feed back to all stakeholders on the lessons hard-learned.
Sadly, there is more chance of seeing a Connor Goldson handball resulting in a penalty against theRangers than we have of the SFA following Howard Webb’s lead.
Niall J
