No more excuses or ‘teething problems’ – Ange fires warning at VAR officials

Ange Postecoglou has issued a not so subtle warning to the SFA that ‘teething troubles’ are no longer acceptable over VAR disputes.

Before the first Scottish fixtures to be covered by VAR the Celtic boss claimed that he was ambivalent about the development but after four rounds of fixtures Postecoglou’s stance has changed.

Following Celtic’s win over Dundee United the hoops boss claimed that the game was being ruined by VAR delays. Tellingly he commented on handball decisions all resulting in penalties being awarded with the exception of Hearts away, a reference to the Michael Smith incident at Tynecastle that went unpunished.

This morning the SFA came up with a contrived statement to explain disallowing Jota’s goal at Motherwell on Wednesday night but after four rounds of controversy Postecoglou doesn’t want to hear any more excuses for officials that are unable to interpret the rules.

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Human beings are involved but the fact a camera is not pointing to where it should be when we only have six cameras… I’m kind of hoping they went through this process before they actually said ‘these are the protocols’. But you have to allow human error within that context.

We understand VAR is part of the game, we’ve introduced it so let’s get on with it but don’t make it the star of the show and unfortunately at the moment that’s what it is. I don’t think it helps anyone – clubs, coaches, referees, players, fans – to have VAR as the focus of every week’s discussion.

For me it’s not about the decisions because I still think with VAR there are going to be decisions that are contentious. To me it’s just about the process and it’s why I was uncomfortable with the fanfare when we introduced it. It was the talk of the town ‘VAR’s coming’ but Australia – which everyone seems to think is a backwater – had VAR four years ago.

It’s not a new thing, it’s been around for quite a while. Referees in our league who referee in Europe have used it. We make it out as if this is a really big thing and big expectations. For me, it should have just been ‘We’re prepared, we’re ready, we’re bringing it, let’s get on with it’ but we made this big fanfare and now we’re saying to expect teething problems.

I don’t know why there would be teething problems for something that’s been around for four or five years. If we’re not ready then don’t start with it. Just wait until we’re ready and get going. For me it’s not about the decisions. They’re saying Jota was offside and have evidence of that – whatever that evidence is – and that’s fine. Even if they’re wrong, I don’t care. It’s a decision. There’s plenty of wrong decisions.

For me, it’s the intrusion it has in the game. It’s why I was uncomfortable with the whole week leading up to it. We sort of had this fanfare about something that’s not new. Whether you bring it in mid-season or end of season it doesn’t matter – if it’s ready.

At last week’s Celtic AGM Michael Nicholson used the teething problems excuse claiming that VAR would improve refereeing matters.