Willie Collum goes into hiding after promising VAR transparency

One week on from the Glasgow Derby and barely any Celtic fans are convinced that Nicolas Kuhn was offside during the build up to a ‘goal’ from Kyogo Furuhashi that was disallowed by VAR.

Instinct said that it was a close call, the assistant referee closest to the line didn’t raise his flag but after a VAR check by Andrew Dallas and Graeme Stewart the ‘goal’ was disallowed.

A few minutes later Sky Sports viewers were shown a long distance still image with some inconclusive lines added and that was that. No special updates, no messages to media partners, no in-match update to Kenny Macintyre and the lads on Radio Scotland.

Brendan Rodgers wasn’t convinced by the evidence provided but with a 3-0 win secured there was little scrutiny from the mainstream of the intervention of Dallas and the flimsy evidence.

During the summer Willie Collum replaced Crawford Allan as head of Refereeing at the SFA. Mike Mulraney claimed with a straight face that the man from the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association had got the job after a worldwide recruitment search.

As usual the new man has come in, promised the earth, a new regime, new this that and the next thing then returned to his office and hidden out of sight while the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association exert their influence.

Covering the pre-season media charm offensive The Herald reports Collum saying:

We would like to move in principle, although not categorically, to doing it on a monthly basis. We would do it through our own media channels at the SFA, showing clips of incidents.

I’ve got the backing of referees to show good, bad and indifferent. We won’t just show you 10 good clips and say, ‘everything’s okay’ but sometimes it’s also good to show clips that people wouldn’t recognise as contentious but so they can understand the decision-making behind it.

It’s an opportunity for us to explain why a particular decision has been made. It’s not always as simple as it being right or wrong. It’s how the referee or the VAR team have come to a conclusion about a particular decision.

I want to be open and transparent about that. It’s something I will drive forward and at this stage, the referees are supporting me on that.

It seems that being open and transparent starts with contacting Radio Scotland to justify a goal from Cyriel Dessers against St Johnstone and ends with the dubious VAR lines produced to justify an offside call made on Kuhn.

Social media has picked apart the VAR lines shared by Sky Sports, from John Souttar then line is drawn back towards the defender with the Kuhn line slightly in from of the Celtic winger. Football is a game of small margins.

With no mainstream clamour for an explanation the decision has been conveniently batted into touch with the full approval of Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell, two men that will never rock the boat.

No doubt there will be future controversies involving Dallas, John Beaton and others from Lanarkshire and beyond, hoping that Rodgers’ side can overcome a -1 start every week is asking a lot of the Irishman and his squad.