Yesterday I had a chat with someone who took part in the recent VAR conflab at Hampden.
Howard Webb gave the main presentation on the operation of this new technology.
My guy said that there were no dissenting voices to the idea of VAR in the topflight of the professional game in Scotland.
The cost to each club will be a “high five-figure” sum.
He told me that the Sevco contingent was their Director of Fantasy and the Serious Professional.
I suspect that the latter might have had other things concerning him as he listened to this presentation.
After all, he is the chap who has to ensure that the lights remain on at the stadium John Brown played for.
I know from another impeccable source that the Sevco High Command has earnestly sought emergency finance to deal with at least one pressing bill.
Who wants to be paid kinda right now?
Well, that I do NOT know.
However, my best guess would be either Hector or Mr David Cunningham King.
Regardless of who is pushing hardest at the moment, BOTH will need to be paid.
Of course, HRMC will brook no opposition with any entity operating out of Ibrox.
The chaps in the Blue Room have been attempting to access short term finance.
I’m told that they did get one possible interested party.
However, I understand that the terms and conditions made the Close Brothers loan look charitable.
Consequently, the most recent cash crisis will have to be dealt with by directors who have repeatedly stepped up to cover the losses.
When January comes around, the other Sevco chap dialled into the VAR meeting will need to identify a few clubs who are keen on some of Mr Gerrard’s charges.
As to the introduction of VAR on Planet Fitba, a cynic might conclude that this will reduce the opportunities for Honest Mistakes in Sevco matches.
I, of course, couldn’t possibly comment.
Phil, love the site, bought the Downfall book the day it came out….but all this is now a waste of time IMO unfortunately.
Celtic are in on everything that has gone on since 2012, our club never says a peep on anything from the other side of Glasgow and it absolutely disgusts me.
The overall standard of player Celtic now has is truly shameful and DD must shoulder the majority of the blame for this.
Imagine going from Brendan Rodgers to Neil Lennon as Manager…. let that sink in for a minute everyone !!
FMG.
We might see that wonder of wonders…a penalty against ” Rangers ” at Ibrox.
Transparency does help.
Are you aware that between 1960 – 1990 Celtic & Rangers were only drawn together in Scottish Cup twice including zero times out of 11 occasions they were both in semi finals. A study at Strathclyde University showed this be a statistical impossibility. (hot & cold balls anyone?)
The cup draw has been broadcast live on tv since then and Celtic & Rangers have been drawn far more regularly since then. My paranoia as a smaller team supporter has now disappeared about the cup draw.
VAR will help achieve something similar with Celtic & many other supporters currently feeling referees are not giving their team a fair break.
This will no go down well with Hanoverian Freemasons who have been led to believe they are descended from the lost 10 Northern tribes of Israel who became Protestants.
Cheers Phil
https://youtu.be/HcvGkjaEp6w
Would that not be the Tribe of Dan whom there os a train of thought that the Celts/Gaels were descended from?
This would pre date Protestantism by many ,many centuries.
A red haired,sea fairing tribe from the West of the Holy Lands on the Mediterranean Coast.
I wish I shared all the optimism. My dad used to tell me about Celtic supporters anticipating the introduction of television coverage having the same impact and we know how well that worked out. The same bad decisions will be made; we will now have a second pair of eyes to review it (from a small town in south Lanarkshire, anyone?) and the same honest mistakes will be the outcome. The best that can be said is that, for us, it will be more obvious that it’s going on.
I can just about understand the negativity towards VAR and of the chance of proper justice being done accordingly, but let’s face it, it can only improve matters. What has gone on for years was nothing short of grand scale cheating, but VAR, no matter on how small a scale, will certainly improve things and make referees more accountable for their previous blatant disregard of the rules. I for one welcome it, let’s suck it and see and be grateful that finally something positive is being done to make the playing field a bit more level.
Any league not using VAR will be regarded as a mickey mouse league.
VAR is not a panacea but, for all its teething problems, it can only improve the standard of decision making in all countries including Scotland and shine a harsher light on poor and dubious refereeing practise.
I worked with a Grade 1 ref on a daily basis for many years. He would share info with me and another team member about their WhatsApp groups discussing the weekend incidents where there would still be a 60/40 split between Red and Yellow etc. so with the best will in the world expecting to get refs to referee consistently to a single standard will never work.
The best you can hope for is that for each individual ref is consistent between games – that is something that would be possible to monitor and measure but I am pretty sure it will never happen as it would only highlight the inconsistencies between how some refs referee some games compared to others in terms of cards early in the game vs. late meaningless cards after the 7th foul by a player or stopping play constantly to interrupt flow vs. letting it flow etc.
Any inconsistencies would become even more apparent if refs VAR decisions were reviewed as they wouldn’t be able to claim to “miss” things; nor could they “think” they saw things that never happened as they often do in real time. Indeed you would hope that the regular assaults (e.g. recent potential ankle snapping challenges on Celtic players) that go unpunished would have to end as would the diving and “buying a foul” type nonsense from Morelos and co.
I think it will help to put Scottish football on a more level playing field, it won’t be perfect but will make it a bit harder for cheating refs to justify their decisions and will make them maybe think twice before being openly biased, In conspiracies the more people involved the more chance of information leaks, VAR will mean another layer is involved in the decision making, which in my opinion would make it harder to cheat.
I do agree with Martin that it might lead to some cheating refs to concentrate on the sly free kicks for and against and the cheap yellow cards, decisions that VAR won’t have any input. Or is that carrying cynicism too far.
I suspect that VAR in Scotland will regularly become the Value Added Ranger.
It hardly matters whether the judge is in an AV van,reffing or van waving on the field, the tendency is omnipresent in Scotland.
Think of the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives who stood gleefully erect when he sent off Ajer. Is he the type of guy you’d want in the van?
Many of the honest mistakes were blatantly and obviously prejudiced. The Value Added Ranger will not be any different. It’s a societal and institutional malaise.
VAR is more likely to stand for Very Angry Rangers because that’s what they will be when they stop getting so many decisions in their favour!
As much as I would love to believe that VAR will be the panacea for around a century and a half of “honest mistakes”, that favour whatever franchise/tribute act/other is playing their home games at Ibrox, I remain sceptical. My gut feeling is that all this will do is transfer the honest mistakes from the lodge members on the pitch to the lodge members in the VAR control room. Only then they will have the excuse to say that we were/are paranoid, as VAR made the decision so it must be an incontrovertible truth. Even though, in England, there are still enough mistakes and inconsistencies made by people genuinely wanting to make sure the game is refereed properly, because often the decisions that are made still come down to human judgement or interpretation (e.g. was that high boot dangerous or not? Was the arm in an unnatural position when the ball hit it?). That leaves plenty of scope for genuine mistakes that are just down to genuine human error or misinterpretation. It also leaves plenty of scope for the more malignant, corrupt, but allegedly “honest” mistakes that you get in our league.
I wonder if the Scottish stenography corps will meet VAR at the airport like they did the last time an attempt at fairness landed in Scotland?
VAR will definitely improve the refereeing. Honest mistakes are easier to make with one view from a dodgy angle, not so much with VAR. A smart cheat though would focus on helpful decisions that wouldn’t be subject to VAR. Free kicks outside the box, bookings etc.
For what it’s worth I do think a lot of the crap refereeing is simply that. No doubt there’s sinister stuff at some level, but a lot of it is hunan error. VAR is here to stay and we won’t be left behind.
The financing is interesting though. A lot of smaller clubs may struggle. I think celtic should cover more than their fair share of setup/year 1 costs to facilitate this. We’re the richest club in Scotland and that’s how my socialist brain works.
Re: sevco. There’s a certain creditor that has just become far more available in the past week. Are they desperate enough to go back to Mr Ashley?
Sometime in the near future
BBC Sport Open All Mics Tom English – it’s the 89th minute it’s all square Alfredo Morelos has elbowed Carter Vickers clean in the face ,is 6 yards offside and the ball has come off of his clenched fists into the net …we now head to Lanarkshire to the Wharton Symes-Dallas the 3 rd VAR Unit for clarification of the goal standing.
With VAR there is nowhere to hide for the knuckle crunching fraternity.
There are some things that will be so glaringly obvious that even they won’t be able to ignore them.
Celtic will benefit from VAR and benefit directly and indirectly more than any other club in Scotland.
Forget the paranoia – an obvious handball on the goal line seen from several different angles will be given as a penalty and a red card.
What a great chance VAR is to levelling the playing field in Scottish football.
Bring it on!!!
Best post on here by a mile
HH
The dilemma for the refereeing brotherhood in Scotland regards VAR is that they either embrace it to help further their careers in UEFA/FIFA tournaments (currently they are overlooked for tournament refereeing as they don’t work with the technology) or advance their careers in Scotland only by sticking to the script.
As wiser men than me have already commented, we also have the likelihood of former referees from the same brotherhood manning the VAR technology. Their ilk see things differently from the rest of us who value sport, sporting chance and a level playing field (not a set square and level like those that adorn their Thursday night aprons).
And what about Sports Direct? That saga has been running longer than The Mousetrap,
The success (or failure) of VAR in the SPFL will be dependent on the neutrality of those reviewing the decisions which are likely to be current or former referees. Consequently, I cannot see it making the slightest difference!
Hopefully it Does!
Re: VAR … I’ll comment. We’re living in cloud cuckoo land if we think it will make a blind bit of difference to the number of “honest mistakes”. It will be the same bigots deciding whether or not to review. It will be the same bigots blowing the whistle and the same bigots waving flags.
Ach!! You’re awful cynical!! But probably bang on in your assessment!!!
I know. I wish I wasn’t. But the bad guys are resurgent. Laws are being written to reverse human rights, voting rights and access to education, not just in the US, but right here, right now. The planet is burning and COP won’t put out the fire. As I type this starving guillemots are dying in the river outside my door … we’re 25 miles from the sea. I’m beginning to wish I’d listened to Philip Larkin ,
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
We all know they are cheats, I would be very surprised if VAR came in to our rigged league.