SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell today insisted VAR is making far fewer mistakes this season – but admitted the modern technology will always be susceptible to human error.
Rangers fans were furious on Sunday when the Ibrox club were denied a penalty in the Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden for a foul on their winger Vaclav Cerny by Celtic centre half Liam Scales.
Officials at the Govan outfit, who ended up losing the match to their city rivals after a shootout, have since been told they should have been awarded a spot kick by SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum.
But Maxwell - speaking as the SFA launched Pitching In, a campaign to raise £50m over the next five years and improve football facilities across the country – is adamant that VAR is working well.
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“We are talking about one decision at the moment,” he said. “This is the first time that anybody has asked Mike [SFA president Mulraney] or I about VAR decisions this season.
“This time last year it was every week. So there has definitely been improvement. The transparency has improved, the referees’ performances on the pitch are improving.
“There will always be decisions that go against you. We are still raging about the penalty that we should have got against Hungary [at Euro 2024 in June]. But we didn’t go to war with UEFA.”
Maxwell continued: “I don’t mean to downplay any of the decisions, I am not saying what happened at the weekend was right or wrong. But there are fundamental moments in matches and referees and match officials have a part to play in that.
“I am not downplaying that or belittling it in any shape or form, I get the significance of it. But it happens and that is the reality of it. You will never take human error out of it.”
Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart contacted the SFA on his first day in his new job on Monday to seek clarification about the non-award of the penalty in the final – but Maxwell denied his organisation is at loggerheads with clubs over refereeing decisions and VAR calls.
“Listen, there is always the sensationalised bit about clubs going to war with the SFA,” he said. “What does that actually mean?
“If a club are unhappy with any refereeing decision, they phone Willie and have a conversation with him about the whats and the whys. Sometimes they are right to be unhappy, sometimes they are not. And then it is done. There is no war, there is no lasting debate about it. That is what happens.
“With the process we have got now, the transparency that we have got with Willie doing it, we have got the KMI (Key Match Incidents) panel that comes out on a weekly basis. Nobody has to wait for any length of time to work out whether the decision was actually right or was actually wrong.”
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Mulraney added: “Things happen, you deal with it like adults and then you move on. It is the same in anything.
“[Scott] McTominay’s goal against Spain [in the Euro 2024 qualifier in Seville last year]? That still hurts. It is imprinted in my mind. It hurts. How did we not get that goal? We would have beaten Spain in Spain. Is VAR ever going to perfect? No, but it is better than what we had before.”