SFA damn outgoing Ref Head with commitment to improve

Yesterday, the SFA announced Head of Referee Operations, Crawford Allan, will leave the position at the end of the season.  The statement was tellingly lengthy and confirmed a few areas of concern.  Specifically, the departure “will effect a review of the existing role and remit to reflect the demands placed on it by the introduction and optimisation of VAR.”

VAR in Scotland was plagued by poor preparation ahead of its introduction in 2022.  Referee guidance was inappropriate and led to a spike in penalties from handball offences that perplexed most observers.

The reset button was pressed during the World Cup break in November and December 2022, following which referee guidance seemed to flip to an anything goes handball rule inside the box.  For some.

Poor preparation, no apparent monitoring and revision strategy, then an over-compensation when guidance was changed, all led to a sense that the Head of Referee Operations was built for simpler times.  This is Scotland, though, so poor performance did not lead to immediate consequences.  It looks like Allen was given time to get fixed up elsewhere.  This is how The System works.

SFA chief exec, Ian Maxwell, dammed with faint praise.  “The introduction of VAR has been a thankless task”.  Diplomatically put, but it need not have been so thankless.  Maxwell went on to say, “the VAR processes need to improve”, and holds what you and I could interpret as a white flag when it comes to “subjective areas such as the handball law.”

Allan himself appears to accept his key failure, “VAR is only one aspect of the role, albeit one that can overshadow the positive strides we have taken forward.”  So, VAR under the outgoing head was clearly not a positive stride forward.

A thankless task it may be but get the basics right.  Allowing VAR cameras to double as B-video for broadcasters was an enormous mistake, not repeated anywhere else in Europe, and led to a camera focussing on the dugout area, instead of watching the offside line when Jota scored at Fir Park.  Fuelling the fire, VAR disallowed the goal, despite not having the evidence.  Allan should have resigned the following morning for creating impossible circumstances for his officials.

His personal moment in the limelight came a year before VAR.  Celtic defeated Hearts 1-0 with a Kyogo goal, which, according to Allen on BBC Radio Scotland, should probably have been flagged for offside.  He may be right, it was a tight call, but there was no definitive camera angle, so all we can rely on to truly inform us is out heart’s desire.

The incident was the only time he publicly cut across his officials and came at a time when Ange Postecoglou’s side were metamorphosising from a midtable disaster into table toppers.  Celtic fans were rightly concerned that the SFA had regressed to their old ways.

What comes next is the important question.  Newco have openly been locked in a battle for control of the SPFL for some years; lobbying happens and works.  The Head of Referee Operations position is not the best renumerated position at the SFA but it is its most influential.  We should be concerned.  Maybe I should apply.