Ian Maxwell has claimed VAR is working well and doing what it is supposed to be doing.
That will come as a shock to Ange Postecoglou and Celtic fans who have watched four penalties awarded against the hoops in five matches, had a clear penalty denied away to Hearts and a questionable explanation given for a ‘goal’ by Jota disallowed away to Motherwell.
The Jota incident forced the SFA into making a statement but that failed to clear up anything with the statement mentioning ‘the Celtic player had received the ball in an offside position’. As the lowest rank of referee knows offside is decided when the ball is played, not received.
In the week before VAR was introduced there was a media blitz about how much the SFA had learned from elsewhere but the frequency of penalties being awarded has risen dramatically over the last five matches.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Maxwell said:
It’s working, it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing. We had a call with Premiership managers and chief executives yesterday and showed them the statistics, showed them the improvement that it’s having in terms of decisions.
What we are actually finding is that we are spending more time talking about less wrong decisions than we had before VAR.
I understand that it’s been a high-profile introduction and it was always going to take time to settle in, as it has in every country it’s been implemented in. The challenges we are facing are no different to anybody else.
We’ve seen at the World Cup a number of decisions that have been questionable and the referees using it have been doing so for a lot longer than we have.
Should the Celtic board publicly call for a full explanation on VAR to date?
No, we have to trust that teething troubles will be resolved
Yes, with VAR comes accountability and transparency
At the Celtic AGM Michael Nicholson claimed that the club had contacted the SFA about the decision not to award a penalty when Michael Smith handled a pass from James Forrest.
To be fair to Maxwell, VAR is doing what it is supposed to do…screwing Celtic on a weekly basis. The club must stop funding this farce.
Watch VAR go now that the dud rookie is in charge at sevco the decisions will be even more outrageous than what we have seen previously,let the CHEATING times role.s
From a SFA point of view it is indeed doing what it is supposed to do. Giving even more ridiculous decisions against Celtic than even an on pitch mason in the middle would give, while denying us blatant penalties and letting opposition players away with career ending tackles. Meanwhile giving Sevco every ridiculous decision going in their favour and turning a blind eye to any hint of penalties, red cards or anything else that might go in their opponents’ favour. All under the ridiculous pretence that this is somehow a fair, objective, scientific system that is immune to human bias or intervention and that always gets it right.
As I’ve said before, you can have all the technology in the world, but it makes sod all difference if it is operated by corrupt, agenda-driven, biased officials.
There should be an observer from both teams in the VAR room so that they can watch and listen to all that is said and done. I don’t trust these corrupt SFA hand picked Sevco fans who are operating in the VAR rooms
First class suggestion.
Ian Maxwell.
CEO of the SFA.
Rod Petrie [of the 5WA shame].
President of the SFA!
This peculiar “Scottish VAR” is just another symptom of the incompetence and corruption in our game.
The governing body had absolutely no shame in 2012.
It’s going to take a fight to have VAR managed impartially.
Lol someone is telling porkies again possibly both the SFA and our club,the SFA for saying it’s working and our club for going along with it.
Now as for the ALKIE BOOZE JOCKEY Saxwell the guy is a ROASTER,full of his own shite.
Scottish football is run out of a cupboard, which is Hampden. The standards are appalling. And it is all to suit one club. Lower the standards until it meets their needs. It is dragging down instead of hauling up. On the world stage of football, we are nowhere!