Ian Maxwell delivered a mealy mouthed defence of VAR despite the SFA and Willie Collum having no credibility among fans of all clubs.
Some people call for VAR to be abandoned but the sensible and realistic solution is to employ officials that understand the rules rather than those trying to climb the ladder to get the most lucrative fixtures and promotion onto lucrative jollies across Europe.
Many of the current match officials came into the game when Hugh Dallas was in charge of refereeing in Scotland, a certain type progressed.
Willie Collum was groomed by his master in the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association with the newest batch of officials clones of Collum with complete contempt for players, manager and supporters. In their little world football is all about the match officials and their VAR toy to create even more attention.
When you throw in Crawford Allan’s tenure when the second best team in the country enjoyed two 60 plus runs of SPFL Premiership matches without conceding a penalty you start to grasp the extent of the problem.
UEFA and FIFA certainly have, they don’t let Scottish officials near anything meaningful outside of this country despite the lobbying of Dallas for his friends in Lanarkshire.
Kenny Macintyre, Pat Nevin and Rory Loy played along with the script on BBC Scotland as Maxwell put himself forward for a 40 minute interview to cover the multiple failings of the legislators in Scotland over the last 12 months.
He managed to sound off about fireworks and Pyro with none of the pundits asking him about Vil Sinmisalo being target practise for over 30 missiles during last month’s Glasgow Derby at Ibrox, including a glass bottle.
That came soon after UEFA imposed a two year suspended sentence on the same section of Ibrox for racist actions during a Europa League tie, a sanction that the SFA has never imposed against either club from Ibrox.
🗣️ ‘From a getting decisions right perspective, VAR is absolutely working… The bit I have some agreement with is about stadium atmosphere and how we improve that’
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell on VAR ⚽️
Listen to Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland & BBC Sounds.#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/1oKHQDb4Ht
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) June 14, 2025
Among the many problems facing the SFA the issues with VAR is near the top, effecting 11 SPFL Premiership clubs most weekends. Maxwell thinks it is working well but he led in the worldwide recruitment that led to Collum being appointed as Head of Refereeing at the SFA.
Once a month Willie Collum teams up with his bestie Gordon Duncan to put on a 25 minutes show on You Tune covering over 20 fixtures and the various mistakes that have angered supporters, players and managers, some of whom have lost their jobs on the back of decisions that can’t be backed up. The biggest mistakes are left out of The VAR Review.
Apparently Collum’s self promotion is working a treat, he gets the praise for accountability while Greg Aitken, Alan Muir, Andrew Dallas and their support cast are making wrong calls left, right and centre. Not helped by a cheap version of VAR that convinces no-one. When you put dubious equipment in the hands of referees unsure of the rulers it is a recipe for chaos.
When Kyogo Furuhashi had three ‘goals’ disallowed during the first half of Celtic’s Champions League match against YB Bern there wasn’t a single complaint from fans. Quickly graphics appeared to explain the decisions, the technology can barely be questioned.
In contrast the hand held Etch-a-Sketch set up in Scotland just isn’t trusted. Except in the eyes of Maxwell and his cronies inside the Hampden bubble.
In September Dallas was on the dodgy lines as a ‘goal’ from Kyogo Furuhashi was disallowed in the opening Glasgow Derby. Fortunately Celtic scored three more times to overcome the son of the man from Bonkle.
That followed Aitken’s failure to intervene for a penalty on the opening day when Robbie McCrorie of Kilmarnock wiped out Kyogo six yards from goal. Aitken is from Kilmarnock, a situation that wouldn’t be tolerated in any other UEFA country.
Muir was in charge of the squinty lines at Fir Park in October as Tom Sparrow’s own goal was chalked off because of Adam Idah’s shoulder.
In the same match Muir had informed David Dickinson that Daizen Maeda had used his arm to put the ball in the net, failing to notice that it was a push on the Celtic forward by Stephen O’Donnell that put him in the position of putting the ball in the net off his arm.
And all that is before Muir just took things too far in February as Celtic stormed back against Hibs.
Reviewing a ‘goal’ by Maeda he decided that the ball had been out of play before being crossed to the forward to find the net.
Without any technology or evidence Muir decided to disallow the goal, Steven McLean wasn’t prepared to ask what evidence his colleague had.
That turned out to be Muir’s last match on VAR duty.
No statement or explanation was given for his demise, instead the news was leaked to a friendly reporter, there was a 48 hour storm then the circus moved on.
Muir was given a full time job by Collum and the SFA last summer despite a charge sheet all the way back to Josh Meekings in 2015.
Maxwell can chat away among his media chums about how wonderful everything is but when Muir is deemed the best candidate for a full time job you can only worry about the candidates that fell short.
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What a clown 😂😂😂😂😂
— Paul Love (@PaulLov49334894) June 14, 2025
Yes using a Poundland version of var, it’s getting what it can right, but invest in a full version and see the possible improvement, there having been so many poor calls this season affecting most clubs. Goal line technology for a start is required
— Nick (@NickP982) June 15, 2025
Is he on drugs?
Decisions are just as bad with VAR than they were without. The problem isnt the technology. The problem is the incompetant referees your put in charge of using the technology
— cameron (@CammyStewart20) June 14, 2025
VAR would be fine, if they were applying it, as it should, to “Clear & Obvious Errors”. NOT offsides to the thousandths of an inch.
— Kiddy (@BellsdykeBairn) June 14, 2025
It’s working for some.
Dundee Utd basically qualified for Europe over St Mirren thanks to the number of wrong decisions Saints had topping that stat for the second season running.
A few officials are simply at it but many more could do with unconscious bias training.— CallMeBayGirl (@CallMeBayGirl) June 14, 2025
Two names he wouldn’t mention: Nick Walsh : Matthew McDiarmid
At least he acknowledged the in stadium experience with VAR needs to change!
— James Morrison (@troonlegal) June 14, 2025
Put VAR on the big screen, open the mics to the stadium tannoy system and have complete transparency with the fans inside the stadium.
It would also help maintain crowd order as decisions are 100% open and rules can be named, so an education too.— Shetlander (@Shetlander1978) June 15, 2025
How much thousands is he getting a year to say its not black its white
— thomas walker (@thomaswalker17) June 14, 2025
Confirmation if it were ever required (it’s not) that the administrators of the Scottish game are wilfully blind and deaf, dishonest cranks.
I don’t know what Ian’s problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.
However, I would like to help him out. Which way did he come in?— Kenny (@piltonjambo) June 14, 2025
From a supporters perspective, VAR is clearly not working. It’s disrupts the flow of the game and is a waste of money. Far too many mistakes are still being made. SFA either don’t have a clue, or are lying to protect themselves.
— KeithyD 🏴🇱🇻 (@KeithyD) June 14, 2025
An absolute clown. Who wants to go along to a match and “watch football with an app”? So out of touch it’s embarrassing. VAR doesn’t work in Scotland because referees are dreadful, simple as that. And btw Hampden should be demolished for houses, it’s a pigsty.
— Martin Macfarlane (@SalesBud) June 15, 2025
Better communication. What to make the incompetence even worse? You won’t even release the audio tape for fear of revealing the truth! What a clown.
— Ian Mac (@sonofwill57) June 15, 2025
