Thankless task- Maxwell’s confession as SFA lose their VAR chief

Crawford Allan will step down as Head of Refereeing at the SFA at the end of this season.

The former Grade 1 referee has been in charge of the introduction of VAR which has been widely condemned by almost every top flight manager, next Thursday Brendan Rodgers goes in front of the SFA to face a Notice of Complaint.

The Celtic boss was angered by decision making during the 2-0 defeat away to Hearts which had two of Scotland’s top officials in charge, Don Robertson on the park and John Beaton in the VAR room.

Announcing Allan’s decision, Ian Maxwell told the SFA website:

Firstly, I would like to thank Crawford for his four years as Head of Referee Operations and especially his efforts in implementing VAR within Scottish football and guiding refereeing through the Covid-19 pandemic.

In many ways, overseeing the introduction of VAR has been a thankless task. Yet it has been essential for Scottish football to remain at the forefront of on-field technology and in-step with the leading domestic competitions across Europe, as well as ensuring our match officials and VAR operators can continue to operate at FIFA and UEFA level.

Crawford has been integral to that process – from feasibility, to training, to roll-out – for much of his tenure and we are grateful that he will remain in place and provide continuity until the end of the season.

Allan has kept a low profile in the media with very little direct comment to explain the implementation on VAR which has added to the confusion of players, managers and supporters.

For most fixtures fans watching on television are better informed than punters who have paid money to attend matches.

Allan’s decision to stay on until the end of the season gives the SFA some breathing space but it will be a difficult job to fill with so much hostility to the decision making and failures to communicate and explain decisions.