Rangers have written to the SFA raising serious concerns over the standard of VAR decision-making in the Premier Sports Cup final.
The governing body should write straight back demanding to know what measures the Ibrox club plan to adopt to stop Philippe Clement losing to Celtic on January 2. How they propose to prevent Jack Butland giving away daft penalties against St Mirren. Or clarifying why Dujon Sterling lost the ball for the Saints winner in the third minute of added time.
Football is a game riddled with human error. One where clubs who don’t fancy dwelling too long on their own failings rarely miss a chance to flag up the failings of VAR to get angry fans off their back.
While Rangers should probably resolve their issues with the governing body privately, their latest Christmas statement does raise an awkward question for football authorities in Scotland and elsewhere.
When the men paid to spot clear and obvious errors make a clear and obvious error of their own, how should they be punished?
No one with half a brain really thinks that officials get decisions wrong on purpose. That said, Rangers fans would still march Alan Muir, Frank Connor and the overlooked Andrew Dallas through the streets, handcuffed and wearing crowns of thorns.
Rangers wrote to SFA raising serious concerns over standard of VAR decision-making
The penalty VAR should have called after Liam Scales pulled shirt of Vaclav Cerny
Willie Collum admitted the Hampden penalty review was ‘unacceptable’
While the public shaming might not improve the standard of the decision-making, it would make supporters feel a bit better about a Hampden penalty review that head of referees Willie Collum called ‘unacceptable’.
In the quest for ‘accountability’, the erring officials were left off the match rota for a game or two, at most. And the Ibrox club don’t think that’s anywhere near enough.
The trouble here is that no-one has ever really sat down to consider what punishment would be enough. Or what accountability, in this context, actually means.
When a central defender incurs a red card for robbing a team of a clear goalscoring opportunity, they’re hit with a one-match automatic ban. Punishing officials more harshly for having the same impact on a game seems unduly harsh.
No-one really knows how they’re punished at all, of course. And that’s a big part of the problem.
When players get things wrong, everyone is aware of what suspension they’ll face.
One breach gets them a yellow card and a warning. Two — or a serious error — is a red card and a one-match automatic suspension. Rack up too many yellow or red cards and they’ll face an extended spell in the stands.
Referees might tell you that, behind closed doors, the assessment, training and rollockings they receive are worse than Fergie’s hairdryer. To the outside world it looks like a slap on the wrist and back to work the next day.
Cup final VAR assistant Frank Connor will run the line at Celtic v St Johnstone game
Andrew Dallas was also part of the VAR team for Celtic-Rangers clash at Hampden
Just as a club manager can’t flay his own player in public, Willie Collum won’t make things better if he makes a habit of chucking a small pool of elite officials under a bus.
Equally, he won’t raise standards much if he turns a blind eye to their incompetence. The trick here is to make the punishment fit the crime and let clubs see that it’s happening.
Alan Muir made a significant mistake in a Motherwell-Celtic game earlier this season when he failed to flag up a penalty for Daizen Maeda. Far from being hammered, he was placed in control of the VAR booth for the first major cup final of the season.
Another full-time VAR official, Greg Aitken, failed to flag up three penalties in nine minutes in the game between Ross County and St Mirren. His punishment for that is a ring-side seat at Clydesdale House for Sunday’s game between Dundee United and Aberdeen.
Muir, meanwhile, is back with his finger on the red button for St Mirren v Dundee, while assistant VAR Connor will run the line at Celtic v St Johnstone.
According to their statement, Rangers have an issue with Connor returning to run the line at ‘a match involving the club that benefited from the error’ at Hampden.
Unless they’re implying that bias somehow influenced his decision — a serious charge — where he plies his trade this weekend is irrelevant.
The only question anyone should be asking is whether the Hampden Three have really served their time? And if the SFA think the punishment is proportionate and fair, they should have no hesitation in writing straight back to Rangers urging them to put their own house in order before doling out governance lectures to anyone else.
Dons still reeling from Rocky’s telling blow
It barely feels like five minutes since David Gray was a dead man walking and Jimmy Thelin the cock of the north.
Late last month, ten-man Hibs slipped to an inept 4-1 defeat to Dundee to make it one win in 13 league games.
On the very same day, Aberdeen suffered their first loss in 21 games when they were beaten at St Mirren. Eight points clear of Rangers in second place, there was no cause for panic.
The Dons should have slipped back in to a winning groove at Easter Road three days later. Ester Sokler’s strike for 3-2 in the 95th minute ought to have hammered the final nail in Gray’s coffin. When Rocky Bushiri popped up with an unlikely last-gasp leveller, Hibs had their sliding-doors moment.
Thelin and his Dons players look shellshocked after 4-0 loss at Kilmarnock
Hibs celebrate victory at Tynecastle after turning their season around
They’ve won four out of five since, their only loss a defeat to Celtic where they asked some serious questions. From rock bottom, they’ve moved up to seventh place, buoyed by the likes of Nicky Cadden emerging as solid seven-out-of-ten performers. No-one is fixating, these days, on Gray’s future.
For Aberdeen, Bushiri’s late goal at Easter Road had the opposite effect. It killed them.
In the five games since, Thelin’s team have lost three and drawn two. Any pretence of a title challenge has gone. An abysmal 4-0 thrashing at Kilmarnock was their worst performance of the season and Rangers have returned to second place, where they’ll surely stay.
The Dons have fallen off a cliff while Hibs have pulled themselves back from the edge with a terrific win over arch-rivals Hearts.
Who saw that coming four weeks ago?
Budge doesn’t need this hassle from boo boys
The Edinburgh derby was a day to forget for sections of the Hearts support.
Allegations of racial abuse towards Hibs player Jordan Obita are the subject of a police investigation.
Ongoing personal abuse aimed at majority shareholder Ann Budge, meanwhile, is an act of monstrous ingratitude.
The boo boys seem to forget that, without Budge stepping in, they wouldn’t have a club to support – never mind an owner to boo.
With her loan paid back, there’s no reason for a 76-year-old woman to tolerate this nonsense. She doesn’t need the hassle.
Come the January window, a new data tie-up with Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics will kick in.
And, if it’s the game changer Hearts expect it to be, Budge will sail off into the sunset with the legacy her contribution deserves.
