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Celtic fans should watch the SFA’s new VAR show. It’s what we’ve been asking for.

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Yesterday, for the first time since its introduction, I sat down and watched the SPFL VAR show, and I have to say, I found it more than just interesting.

Listening to the explanations behind the decisions, and hearing the audio of how those decisions were made on the day, was one of the most fascinating and innovative things I’ve seen in Scottish football in many years. I must conclude that one of Willie Collum’s first major reforms has been executed with aplomb, delivering exactly what was intended.

This isn’t going to prevent every contentious decision, but it will make it far harder for officials to repeat the same mistakes over and over again without accountability. Moreover, it will become much more difficult for referees to make decisions that consistently benefit certain clubs. Now, every decision will be subjected to public scrutiny, and most importantly, we’ll get insight into how those decisions are reached.

We won’t agree with every interpretation, but Collum will be on hand to explain them. He’s already shown that he won’t shy away from saying when he believes the officials got it wrong. And you can be sure that if officials make particularly egregious decisions, there will be consequences behind the scenes.

Openness and transparency are what we’ve been asking for. We wanted to know why decisions were made and how officials arrived at them. We demanded an end to the SFA’s wall of silence approach. Collum came in with a vow to change that, and so far, he’s kept his word.

For far too long, Scottish football has operated under the assumption that referees should not be questioned and that their decisions are not up for debate.

This must change, and it’s about time. Let’s be honest—many of us once viewed Collum as part of the problem, regardless of which team we supported. I know fans of the club across the city have a different view of him than we do, but we weren’t exactly offering compliments after his officiating of our matches either.

Yet, I don’t know a single Celtic fan who wasn’t pleased to see him take on this new role as a supervisor of referees, especially since it seems to have irked the club across the city. But that alone wouldn’t have been a good reason to support his appointment.

What matters is that Collum came in speaking a very different language from previous heads of refereeing. He immediately talked about reform, transparency, and openness—exactly the things we’ve been crying out for.

I watched that show yesterday not to dissect individual decisions, but to examine the process behind them. I wanted to see what the decision-making looked like, and I have to admit I was impressed. It wasn’t just about defending the referees; Collum was speaking directly to the public, to the fans, offering insights into why decisions were made the way they were.

That said, we must be cautious about letting VAR take over the role of refereeing.

The more decisions you pass to VAR—and there was a debate yesterday about whether second yellow cards should be included—the more scrutinised every action becomes. Already, it seems like every Celtic goal is looked at from 100 different angles, but if these decisions are explained as they have been so far, and those explanations are made public, we might finally get VAR to the place where those of us who supported it from the start believed it could go.

When VAR was first proposed, I backed it because I thought it would make it harder for officials to get away with some of the more questionable decisions we’ve seen over the years.

Plenty of people told me that VAR would only make Celtic’s situation worse—and for a while, they were right. But Collum has introduced the very things I had hoped for, and hopefully, we are now moving in the right direction.

It’s been a long time since I’ve praised anyone at the SFA for anything. I’ve often accused our governing bodies of not wanting to govern.

But every now and then, a proper reformer emerges. Willie Collum may be an unlikely one, but he might just prove to be one nonetheless. And if this is the path he intends to continue on, I’m intrigued to see what he comes up with next.

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3 comments

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    Like the challenge from Aberdeen – A very welcome change for the better…

    How long until Sevco say it’s not right, it’s favouring ‘certain’ teams ?

    And then try to end it with handshakes behind closed doors…

    Never in a million years did I think that I’d see The SFA do something correct and actually honest – EVER EVER…

  • Paddybhoy67 says:

    “Now, every decision will be subjected to public scrutiny …”
    Are you sure, James?

  • davids31 says:

    Your blog is bang on the Sept and Oct VAR podcasts taken together are really instructive. Hearing the actual voices and their high pitched panic to get to the right decision very interesting. But in September Collum was also all over the podcast sphere and it was very much the Willie Collum week. He needs to make sure it’s about disseminating information but not all about Willie.

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