Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell expects fans to get more insight into VAR decisions soon – but pointed out that live audio of referees was not allowed under FIFA rules.
Fans recently got some insight into several decisions from the Premier League season and Maxwell hopes Scottish football can provide more understanding after the introduction of video technology in October.
Maxwell said: “There needs to be a dose of reality given the amount of time that it’s been in up here.
“England have had it for six years and they have done it once and it was audio from clips that were a month old.
“When I listen to commentators and broadcasters and radio phone-ins and they say it would be great to hear what the referee is saying, but it’s not allowed under the laws of the game. We are not permitted to stream the audio between the referees and the VAR room live.
“Will that come? I’m sure it will. I know FIFA are trialling it at one of the youth world cups, they are going to trial more communication between the match officials and those in the stand.
“We need to make sure the processes we have got in place let as many people know as soon as possible about decisions and what’s being looked at and why.
“We are bound by the terms of the FIFA protocol and they are in the process of reviewing that because they have not done so for the six or seven years it has been in place.”
Maxwell had warned before VAR’s introduction that Scottish football could face a “horrendous” three months but he believes there is no doubt that decision-making has improved despite criticisms from many managers.
“I actually said, that when I spoke to UEFA they were telling me that everywhere it’s been implemented, the first three months were horrendous,” he said. “I didn’t say ours would be horrendous.
“Listen, it’s been difficult. It was always going to be such a high-profile addition that there was always going to be contention round about it.
“The technology works. I would be naive to say that it’s been perfect because it’s not.
“We are getting fewer decisions wrong, there is no doubt about that. Perhaps unsurprisingly in Scottish football, we are spending more time talking about less wrong decisions, which is counter-intuitive but that’s just the way this country thinks about its football.
“As long as there is a person involved, things are going to go wrong in any walk of life. We need to work to make sure we are continuing to improve.
“The amount of experience our match officials have had is limited.
“People talk about the handball rule, we have been implementing the handball rule the same as everyone else. If people think the handball rule should be different then let’s have a go at trying to change that. It’s not a VAR problem, it’s a laws-of-the-game problem.
“It’s a work in progress, it’s always going to be a work in progress. When you look down south, they have had it for six years and there are many weekends when there has been some sort of VAR uproar in England.
“We need to work to make it as good as it can be.”
Ross County manager Malky Mackay called for major summer talks between referee officials and clubs after being on the wrong end of two VAR penalty decisions during his side’s 1-0 defeat at Motherwell on Saturday.
Maxwell said: “That was always planned. During the World Cup break we had a call with the managers and chief execs and we said we would do that again at the end of the season. It’s not been in place long and we need to continue that dialogue.”
