Typically, Willie Collum was in hiding as the news of Alan Muir’s ‘sacking’ from his VAR role leaked out.
As with most Hampden related issues Stephen McGowan had the story, now gracing the pages of The Herald after leaving the Daily Mail. Generally the Daily Mail is among the highest payers in the media but it appears that they are now on a race to gather clicks, it is quantity over quality in the battle for digital survival.
Muir was one of three full-time VAR officials, appointed by Collum last summer to work alongside Andrew Dallas and Greg Aitken, highlighting the talent puddle that the SFA draw from.
For more than a decade Collum and Muir were refereeing colleagues, frequently working alongside each other and enjoying the perks such as foreign appointments.
After replacing Crawford Allan as the Head of Refereeing at the SFA some Celtic fans believed that a new broom was coming in, overlooking the fact that Collum owes his entire refereeing career to Hugh Dallas and is a long standing member of the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association.
By giving Muir a full-time contract Collum set off in a particular direction, VAR Manager Jon Moss decided to quit his role after just 52 days in the job.
Having been promoted Muir continued to operate as he always had, highlighted by his role as Additional Assistant Referee in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Inverness Caley Thistle where he decided to ignore the clear handball from Josh Meekings.
Muir’s first Celtic match on VAR duty was away to Hibs on August 11, he refereed the home match against Hearts on September 14 when he stepped in to correct two penalty decisions from Colin Steven, it seemed that he realised the magnitude of his new job, or maybe there was another motive for those decisions.
There was the away match at St Johnstone two weeks later, then came the Motherwell away match when he intervened, raising the red flag and drawing attention to himself and reminding Celtic fans of his track record.
Referee David Dickinson missed Stephen O’Donnell’s foul on Daizen Maeda and the hand that the forward used to put the ball in the net. Reviewing the incident Muir detected the handball but not the push. Celtic were denied a penalty, an incident highlighted by the SFA’s KMI panel.
Clearly standing by his appointment Collum put Muir on VAR duty for the League Cup Final, he ignored multiple assaults on Nicolas Kuhn and Reo Hatate but upset Phil Clement by not awarding a penalty against Celtic.
And then it was onto Easter Road, for whatever reasons Muir went too far, denying Celtic a goal with no evidence. It was a costly decision.
Collum said:
Let’s think what the starting point is? The starting point is the on-field decision. The on-field decision is the assistant referee keeps the flag down and a goal is scored. So, as far as the assistant referee is concerned, the ball has not gone out of play. The VAR and AVAR of course go into a check, which they are expected to do so. They need to assess with the cameras and the footage available if the ball is out of play.
You hear the VAR at one point say that it looks like it’s gone out of play from a particular angle, and then AVAR correctly says ‘I don’t think you can be conclusive there’. Then an angle appears from the main camera and you hear a reaction, the VAR and AVAR both think at that point that’s evidence to say the ball is out of play.
Now, what I want to be very clear about, and we coach the VAR’s and AVAR’s to be certain about this, you need 100 per cent conclusive evidence to disallow the goal here and prove that the ball is over the goal line. And in this case, that is not possible. It’s not possible.
Early on Tuesday evening The Herald announced:
Alan Muir’s career as one of Scottish football’s first full-time Video Assistant Referees is over.
A former category one official, Muir was promoted to the specialist VAR role by head of referees Willie Collum.
Following three high-profile errors involving Celtic and Rangers, however, the 49-year-old has now left his post by mutual consent following crisis talks with Collum and VAR manager Martin Atkinson.
Herald Sport understands the Aberdonian will be available to act as a referee observer in future, but will no longer take charge of games from the VAR booth at Clydesdale House after a number of controversial VAR calls drew criticism from both halves of the Old Firm.
Collum appointed Muir as a full-time VAR official. After the Maeda incident he put him in charge of the League Cup Final in December, he continued to back him with the appointment at Easter Road.
As the Head of Refereeing goes into hiding the issues are greater than Muir.
Collum has been busy creating a personality for himself with legacy media outlets, hand in hand with Gordon Duncan.
Rather than getting on with his job the Head of Refereeing is promoting and protecting himself, Kris Boyd and Bill Leckie are on board with ‘Willie is a right good guy’.
The issues aren’t resolved by downgrading Muir to become a Referee Observer, until someone from outside the Scottish refereeing bubble is appointed the problems will continue.
Especially with Andrew Dallas and Greg Aitken as the two remaining full time VAR officials.
RELATED READING
2 Comments
by Eddie McKelvies Capri
The SFA conducted a Worldwide Search, similar to Celtics when Celtic appointed Mute Mike as CEO, and The SFA were, similar to Celtic, in the lucky position to realise the best candidate for the job was already in their employ!! And was able and willing to step up to the mark with a considerable salary increase!!
It’s all about the Vested Interests!l And that darn Gravy Train for dem dats aboard just keeps on running!! 👍😁🚂🏴
by David c
Muir also missed a penalty to ‘rangers’ in the cup final,,, thankfully right enough,, colum has brought more transparency since he took the new role, probably has quite a lot to do with muirs sacking to be fair