Dundee United have blown a huge hole in the the credibility on Willie Collum’s VAR project.
Since taking over from Crawford Allan as the Head of Refereeing at the SFA the former school-teacher has been self promoting through the monthly VAR Review with media buddy Gordon Duncan, topped up by the weekly KMI report.
Collum has been getting praised throughout the media as a ‘good guy’ bringing accountability to the secretive world of refereeing but clubs and fans have been less than impressed.
As usual in Scottish football the truth lies not far below the surface.
Not much detail is known about the Key Match Incident Panel which reports on Fridays over highly selective incidents from the previous weekend.
Following on from the Dundee United statement more detail has emerged with the revelation that pundits and commentators are being used in the KMI to whitewash the mistakes of match officials.
Opening up the possibility that Collum through the SFA is paying Kris Boyd to put an official stamp on decisions being made in matches involving Celtic.
Following the statement from Dundee United the Daily Record threw more light on the issue through the well connected Scott Burns who revealed:
The controversial KMI panel is asking commentators, reporters and pundits to make calls on some of the biggest decisions in Scottish football.
Dundee United controversially released a statement last night calling for VAR reform and confirming it had withdrawn its representation from the Key Match Incident Review Panel. It comes days after disgruntled chiefs at rivals St Mirren called for VAR to be taken out of the hands of the Scottish Football Association and to be run by an independent body.
The SFA put together a regular five man KMI panel to review controversial refereeing and VAR incidents. That consists of club representatives, former officials, ex-players and managers along with media figures. Record Sport understands that BBC commentators and Sky Sports pundits are amongst those who have been asked for their views, along with some of the written press, who all contribute towards the KMI’s findings.
As broadcast partners of the SFA it seems that BBC Scotland and Sky Sports pundits get a payment for sitting on the panel judging on refereeing issues. Faddy and Boydy struggle to string two thoughts together, their knowledge of the Laws of the Game is certainly questionable.
While money is wasted on the KMI panel a substandard version of VAR is used on every SPFL Premiership fixture.
During the second half of Celtic’s win at Motherwell an own goal from Tom Sparrow was disallowed after John Beaton applied VAR lines to the incident.
With thick hand-drawn lines applied at a distant angle there was no evidence that Adam Idah was offside as he ran through on goal.
Afterwards BBC and Sky barely touched on the incident, in stark contrast to the red card shown to Mohamed Diomande the previous week which was given blanket coverage. Collum raced a statement out on that incident straight after the final whistle, nothing has been heard on the squiggly lines used against Idah.
Dundee United provided their supporters with a detailed statement explaining why they were no longer giving credibility to the KMI smokescreen.
Dundee United FC has today formally notified the Scottish FA of our decision to withdraw our representation from the KMI panel.
This decision follows extensive discussions throughout the season with the Scottish FA Refereeing Department, where we raised concerns regarding the panel’s purpose, effectiveness, and impact on Scottish football. We believe the panel’s outcomes have been inconsistent with feedback provided by the Scottish FA.
There have been instances where on-field decisions, supported by VAR and endorsed by the Scottish FA Refereeing Department, were contradicted by the KMI panel. In many cases, these disagreements appear to be based on the opinions of panel members who, for the most part, lack significant expertise in the laws of the game.
There it is- the SFA use people without significant expertise in the Laws of the Game to justify the decisions taken by referees and backed up by VAR.
Celtic’s only comment since the introduction of VAR was ‘penalty to Rangers’ when Michael Nicholson was questioned about Beaton at the 2023 AGM.
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