Ange sat in front of the media today and it was clear from his demeanour and the answers that he gave to the questions that when it comes to VAR he’s had about all he can stomach already.
What I found most interesting is when he dismissed the SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell’s statement, from last month, about how we should expect “teething problems.”
“Australia, which everyone seems to think is a backwater, had VAR four years ago. It’s not new. Referees in our league who referee in Europe have used it,” he said. “We made it out to be a really big thing with big expectations. Now we are saying ‘expect teething problems’. I don’t know why there would be teething problems for something that’s been around for four or five years. If they’re not ready now, don’t start, just wait till we’re ready.”
He was scathing about the suggestion that camera had been pointed in the wrong place.
“The fact that a camera is not pointing to where it should be, I’m kind of hoping they went through this process before and said ‘these are the protocols’.”
Clearly, the big guy doesn’t buy any of this. These “mistakes” are not the sort that have been seen anywhere else in the game. Other leagues have adopted VAR without all this hysteria, and the idea that a camera was not watching play is something that nobody I’ve spoken to has ever heard about happening in any other league where it’s been used.
We said at the time that Ian Maxwell sounded very much like a man who got his alibis in early, and that’s exactly what it sounds like all these weeks on when these decisions – all against us – have already become a matter of routine.
But as I’ll explore in more detail a little bit later, in their desperation to make the best of this window, the cheats and the charlatans have played their trump card too early and not very well.
These scandals have led to the kind of scrutiny our enemies could not afford, and it’s come within a month of the technology being set up. That will, ultimately, play to our long term advantage.
Maybe Maxwell should thing before opening his mouth, Ange knows more about var than that clown seems to think, once again Ange tying these clowns in heavy sweats.
The cheating scum ref/sfa have tried over 3games to influence the result had their plan worked Celtic maybe only 1 point ahead.. Their scam didn’t work Celtic to good even with them cheating so the gap is 7 points and the cheats are running out of tricks to try:-)
I am not a conspiracy kind of Celtic fan. But the explanation makes no sense. These are key questions I would ask if I was Celtic CEO:
1 Was he flagged offside on the field?
2 Was VAR even able to review the descision?
3 Why were odd angles shown giving the impression VAR was used and was able to make a decision?
4 Did the VAR official actually give a decision to the referee? If so how could he ? (Remember on offside VAR is not giving a recommendation it’s giving a FACTUAL YES/NO as described by Kenny Clark on Sportsound this week).
5 Can we see what the VAR official saw?
6 If VAR cannot decide surely it must be given as the game is all about entertainment.
7 If VAR DID decide how could it if the cameras were not working?
Sounds a bit like the excuse in 1957 when’s somebody’ forgot ti take the dust cover off the camera for 2nd half of the league cup final.
End of first half we were 2/1 up,end of game 7/1.
I smell shite and a lot of it
I think it would be to everyone’s advantage if someone were to ask the governing bodies this question . Why do we in Scotland ,not have the camera facilities and angles like they have in England,Germany ,Spain ,Italy ,France and the entire continent of Europe for VAR ? Another enquiry could be , why do we in Scotland have the 50 bob version of VAR ,when other countries have the latest and finest technologies? Tightwads , misers ,skinflints,and cheapskates come to mind very quickly .
What could be a concern in the months tae come for me, is that Ange just has enough of it and decides tae go elsewhere a lot earlier, if a decent enough offer comes from England or somewhere. The guy has tae put up wi this shit almost every day of every week and he knows already what’s really happenin here. How great a day would that be for our rivals and corrupt bastards of officials, who call themselves ‘professional’. Would be ‘job done’.
VAR has exposed the corruption of officials in the Scottish game. Simples.
Kevan so true the big man will put up with this so long and walk away from all the corruption and cheating taking all our top players who will not want to participate in this charade even though he loves the club and what we represent and all the Bhoys and girls love Ange in who we trust