With Crawford Allan, Scottish FA Head of referees, opting to step down at the end of the season, it will be interesting to see just who steps into his shoes given how unappealing such a position currently looks.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell admitted that the “VAR processes need to improve” as he urged all parties to “work together to alleviate unsustainable pressure on match officials and VAR operators”.
Maxwell spoke of the “blame culture” that has become attached to decisions and, certainly, there isn’t a weekend that goes by without controversy and outcry around the technology and, crucially, the interpretation of the laws of the game.
It was interesting that Maxwell spoke of “…all key external stakeholders having a better understanding of the laws of the game, the lines of intervention for VAR and the adopted guidance within Scottish football, especially in subjective areas such as the handball law.”
He also added that the implementation of VAR had been a “thankless task.”
The bottom line that VAR is here to stay, regardless of what popular opinion is around the technology. There hasn’t been a top flight manager or player who has not cursed VAR while fans have been frustrated at the lack of communication within grounds as well as the time it can take to reach decisions. In an ideal world there would be a move to streamline the role it has in the game with release of audio a welcome addition to what is currently relayed.
Greater transparency and greater consistency are the two requirements that are essential for anyone coming in to oversee the use of the technology.
Certainly, what we have seen across recent months at times has essentially been VAR re-refereeing games which is never what its purpose was supposed to be.
Crucially, one of the real grey areas and the area that causes so much consternation is the subject of clear and obvious errors. Does anyone now have a clear understanding of what this means?
The last independent review panel found that mistakes had risen from three in the first quarter of the season to 13 in the second; there isn’t any club who will not have a tale to tell of being hard done by.
In terms of the spectacle of the game, the immediacy of decisions and reactions, VAR has had the effect of a large bucket of ice cold water.
Allan has clearly had enough of the Monday morning phone calls. Passing the baton on will not alleviate any of the headaches that VAR has been the cause of.
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