One of Scotland’s most high profile referees has been chased through a high street store and found a pile of human excrement at the front door of his family home as part of a toxic backlash to VAR.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has revealed how the current big named whistler has been targeted by vile yobs while calling for managers to turn down the heat on the raging debate over the implementation of the new technology. Maxwell confirmed that an end of season summit will be convened with all top flight clubs to review the first six months of the Clydesdale House set-up after a raft of complaints from managers.
But he insists it’s the officials who are suffering most of all. The Hampden boss said: “The match officials are the first ones who know. They know before anybody else if they have got something wrong and it affects them.
“I hadn’t really spent a huge amount of time with the refs but I spoke to one category 1 referee and I said, ‘How does it work when something goes wrong, how do you deal with it?’
“And he said he just didn’t go out. He said he just stayed in the house or he would go to his work and just come back. He tried to stay away.
“I asked how bad it had been and he said, ‘I got chased through Primark by somebody who wanted to batter me because I had made a decision!’
“Also somebody had defecated on his doorstep after a game. It is embarrassing. It is embarrassing that people think that is acceptable.
“Our match officials are under so much pressure because they are being scrutinised so much that they must feel that.
“So how is that conducive to them going out and performing well on a Saturday?
“It doesn’t make any sense. And football has an obligation to make sure that that is not the case and that we are giving them as much support as we can.
“I think there is an obligation on football and on everybody within football just to kind of understand that because that will help us get the right decisions. And that’s what everybody wants. Everybody is in it for the same thing.”
Maxwell, though admits the roll-out of VAR has been undermined by a number of high profile errors - which have seen red cards rescinded on appeal despite being initially rubber-stamped by the video assistant.
He went on: “There is definitely a learning curve there and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen. That shouldn’t happen.
“If there is a match official looking at something and a VAR official looking at something then they should get to the right outcome.
“I would be naïve to sit here and say it has been perfect because it’s not, and we need to work hard to make it as good as everybody wants it to be.”
Maxwell also revealed that he is planning olive branch talks this summer with new Rangers chairman John Bennett in the hope of ending a long running row between Ibrox and the top brass on Hampden’s sixth floor.
A series of major boardroom shake-ups have seen Dave King, Douglas Park and MD Stewart Robertson move on and Maxwell hopes the club’s simmering feud with the authorities can also be put to bed.
He said: “I don’t know the new chairman John particularly well, but we’ve got a meeting in the diary to sit down and get to know each other and take things from there.
“If we are going to grow and continue to develop then we all need to be doing it together. “There’s obviously been a bit of change, but I’m looking forward to getting to know the new guys at Rangers well and progressing that relationship.”
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