FA Chief Executive Ian Maxwell has launched a strong defence of VAR in Scottish football, insisting that the technology is both working and here to stay.
The conclusion to a thrilling season in the SPFL Premiership was scarred by rancour and toxic behaviour after anger and frustration with standards of refereeing and the application of VAR spilled over.
A 19-year-old man was charged with a data protection offence after referee John Beaton awarded a disputed penalty to Celtic in a game against Motherwell at Fir Park.
Beaton and his family were forced to spend a night under police surveillance after his personal details were leaked online and, speaking after the SFA unveiled a new record turnover at Hampden, Maxwell called the episode ‘disgusting.’
Refuting calls for VAR to be scrapped after the SFA reported an increase in the accuracy of decisions to around 98% he said: “It won’t happen. Why would it happen?
“Everyone gets starry-eyed about the pre-VAR days.
“Why would we want to go back to a situation where we get more decisions wrong? It makes no sense.
“I say this every year sitting here. Every country in Europe has a referee crisis.
“Every chief exec and president that Mike (Mulraney, SFA President) and I speak to, we end up in a group therapy session.”
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One of the criticisms of the system is a growing perception is that VAR in Scotland is a stripped back, penny pinching version of the technology which utilises fewer cameras than bigger nations.
Collectively clubs in the SPFL Premiership pay £1.2million a year for its use and Maxwell challenged some of the more unflattering descriptions.
“There is a narrative that we have VAR-lite and it’s a cheap VAR system.
“But we have the same VAR system as over 50 percent of European nations.
“We have the same technology, it’s not any different and it’s not VAR-lite.
“You can have a number of cameras and we have a six-camera system because that’s what we’ve got from a production point of view in the Premiership.”
Rangers Chief Executive Jim Gillespie recently called on the Scottish FA to use profits from the forthcoming World Cup to upgrade the technology used and hinted at a willingness within Ibrox to shoulder more of the burden. Semi-automated offside technology, such as that about to be used at the World Cup, is hugely expensive and there is a reluctance amongst some clubs to pay more a system which is unpopular with fans. “Do I think more cameras would help” asked Maxwell. “Yes. But do I think it’s the solution to the problem? No.
“Because the English Premier League have had more cameras than anybody but still have the same mistakes as we see up here.
“It’s not the be-all and end-all or the thing that fixes all the ills.
“We’ve had discussions with clubs about improving it and that’s for them to determine, from a tech and an investment they want to make inside their own stadium. It’s about how they want to deal with that.
“Having match officials run out on to the pitch under as little pressure as possible will do more to improve decision making than spending more money than cameras.
“VAR is working. It’s eradicating errors. But unfortunately we have a culture within Scottish football that just wants to focus on the negative and over-analyse and forensically analyse every decision that’s ever made.
“It doesn’t even need to be wrong. It just needs to be a decision you don’t like because it doesn’t suit your team. It’s about the colour of shirt your team is wearing.”
Anger over decision making reached a peak in the toxic final weeks of the season, when Hearts were denied a penalty against Motherwell, while eventual champions Celtic benefitted from a hugely contentious VAR intervention at the same venue days later.
Referred to the monitor to review a potential handball by Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson, referee John Beaton awarded Celtic a 96th minute spot kick which had a significant influence on the destination of the title. Placed into police surveillance with his family, the SFA released a strongly worded statement when the officials personal details were placed online.
“It was disgusting. Honestly, I was absolutely raging.
“It is just not right, it fundamentally not right.
“If anyone has played any sort of part….everyone has to look at every bit that makes that happen, every bit of media commentary, whether it is a statement from a club or a manager talking after a game or a player, there are a lot of bits that escalate to the point that someone says ‘I am going to stick a referee’s details online’.
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“How anyone thinks that is acceptable is an absolute disgrace. I know we put out a very robust statement and it is up to us as an association to stand by that, because you cannot be spending your time doing that.
“All we do is lambast referees from one day to the next. It never stops.”
“From the first day of the season to the last, all they do is get criticised.”
Ill-feeling perpetuated on the final day on the Premiership season when Celtic fans staged a pitch invasion after Callum Osmand’s title winning goal against Hearts. Television cameras captured goading and intimidation of Hearts players – including former captain Lawrence Shankland.
The SFA expect to publish the results of an independent review into the pitch incursion staged by fans of Celtic and Rangers during the Scottish Cup quarter-final on March 8 imminently. The SPFL have also launched five disciplinary investigations into unacceptable behaviour in the final weeks of the campaign while Police Scotland Deputy Chief Constable Jo Farrell has called for a crackdown by clubs and regulatory bodies in Scotland to echo UEFA’s Strict Liability.
While Maxwell is wary of the terminology he accepts that football has to work with the justice system to do more to deter fans from storming on to the field of play.
“We need to look at what we are doing as football to try and fix it, from an association perspective crowd behaviour starts with the SPFL, obviously we work very closely with them.
“We need to engage with clubs to understand what it looks like and I think the police can help.
“The SPFL talked about criminalising individuals coming on the pitch, criminalising tailgating getting into stadiums and FBO legislation, all those would help solve the problems.”
