TBILISI, GEORGIA - AUGUST 10: Referee William Collum (c) pictured with Damien MacGraith, Francis Connor, Graham Chambers, Bobby Madden, Kevin Clancy ahead of the UEFA Super Cup between Barcelona and Sevilla FC at Dinamo Arena on August 10, 2015 in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Lewis - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Willie Collum’s elite group of officials delivered possibly their worst decision of the season yesterday.
Motherwell were the victims, Hearts the beneficiaries. Keeping Derek McInnes’ side at the top of the table.
With five critical post split fixtures coming up rewards will be decided by small margins. Steven McLean delivered one of those yesterday at Tynecastle.
Pierre Landry Kabore was sitting down seven yards from goal when he attempted to back head the ball towards goal.
In that position he shouldn’t touch the ball, it impacts on others around him.
Stephen Welsh had to restrain his clearance. Defenders don’t expect an opponents head to be a at ground level.
The Laws of the Game state how that very situation should be dealt with. An indirect free-kick against the grounded player.
WILLIE COLLUM IN CONTROL…
In Scotland, under Willie Collum they have their own micro climate for the Laws of the Game.
In the VAR studio McLean decided to review the incident. He called Matthew MacDermid over to the monitor to review it.
Between McLean, MacDermid and VAR assistant Graeme Leslie none of them know the Laws of the Game.
A penalty was awarded, Hearts scored, won the match and remain clear on top of the SPFL Premiership.
This is the reason there will be no Scottish refs at a major football competition since 2016.
Isn’t it glaring obvious that change is needed— mick mcgeady (@McgeadyMick) April 12, 2026
The incident was all over social media on Saturday night.
Three SFA officials decided to do their own thing rather than implement the Laws of the Game.
Since calling out the quality of match officials after a 1-1 draw with Danny Rohl’s team Motherwell have suffered terribly from decision making.
McLean refereed that match, John Beaton was on VAR. A favourite pairing for Collum.
Next up for Jens Berthel Askou is a trip to Ibrox. He knows exactly what to expect with another of Collum’s cronies in charge of that match.
Don Robertson will referee today’s match at Falkirk. The final pre-split fixture.
What about Cammy Devlin throwing himself to the ground to buy another cheap foul which then leads to the pen!
We all know there are teams and certain players within them that use this tactic a lot!
Makes you wonder,do refs analyse games afterwards and take notice of when/who is conning them(some on a constant basis )or is there zero interest in learning and making the game and their own performance better.
Or is it they ,the SFA/SPFL/CFC don’t care? it certainly seems that way to me, what else could it be? Certainly couldn’t be bias , could it?!
Apparently, Collum has been set a target by the SFA,
to have Scottish match officials back at a WC or Euros tournament,
…by 2090.
A bit ambitious by the Hampden blazers…?
🙂
Are our refs still sponsored by Specsaver’s?
Cos it’s the blind leading the blind and it should be the RNIB.
How is it possible for a ref and two assistants plus however many in a VAR studio, 2 or 3? all supposedly elite Scottish football refs, to all be so completely unaware of the rules?
I’m not believing for one minute that they wanted to assist the diets in any way at all, especially with their very favouritist team playing today, but they just got that decision absolutely wrong, and it’s embarrassing.
Expect more of the same against Falkirk today.
I’m thinking first goal a pen, just to take the nerves away.