Contrary to what some observers have believed over the years, Willie Collum has yearned for the day that the referee does not become the story.
A week tonight, when Hibs take on St Johnstone at Easter Road and VAR is implemented for the first time in Scottish league football, the 43-year-old firmly believes it is finally going to happen. He’s not daft. Collum knows there could be teething problems but is adamant that Scottish officials will benefit massively from having the safety net of two VAR operators - both top class refs themselves - manning the booths at the state-of the art SFA VAR control centre in Baillieston.
And he is convinced he and every other man in the middle will welcome with open arms the thought of not putting themselves through trial by Sportscene every weekend. “My honest opinion is,” he said. “This is about benefiting us in Scotland. It’s to avoid the controversy here. That’s the biggest thing — to ensure we aren’t the headline any more.
“VAR is a great safety net and we can relate it to any game we referee, and games in the past. The biggest thing for us is that we’ll get another opportunity to see things. T It’s not easy to adjust and referees here will need to adjust, because one week you might be refereeing in the Premiership with VAR, and the next week you’ll be refereeing in the Championship.
“But there is not a referee in the world who doesn’t want the opportunity to see a decision again. That will be a Godsend for all of us — that opportunity to have a safety net and know that, if I make an error, then I’ve got the chance to see it again. I won’t be worrying about what Sportscene will show on Saturday night or what someone will text you.
“I’ll get the chance to see it there and then. But the key principle is the same: the referee MUST try to get the decision right on the field. A great deal of our training at the Scottish FA is about getting the decision right.
“As a referee, you don’t want to need to use VAR. It’s great coming off when you haven’t used VAR because the prime focus is to get the decision right on the field.
“I’ve been refereeing for a long time. I think probably looking back it would have been a dream come true to be able to see things again.
“I used to tell people when I described refereeing watching games at night or lying in bed thinking about a decision you made that I used to wish I always had a rewind button. A lot of people probably have that in their lives generally – they wish they could rewind. We’ve all been in situations like that, in our jobs even.
“But this is the opportunity now. You look back over your career and of course there are decisions. What referee wouldn’t want to change a decision?
“It would save you being the headline on a Monday. A colleague of mine from another European country told me very quickly the media changed.
“It wasn’t about the refereeing scandal on a Monday. It’s the fact that the decision was corrected. That was the big thing.”
Interestingly, Collum believes that the attention will shift to the VAR operation - of which he will be part as experienced officials will be used to remotely help their colleagues who are holding the whistle.
He added: “If you’re sitting in a room with screens, people will expect us to get it right. That’s why you need to understand it’s not an easy situation sitting in here. I went to South Korea in 2017 when it was being trialled at the Under-20 World Cup.
“I really did have a vision of sitting watching a game of football in luxury and having a coffee and saying ‘that maybe didn’t look right, can you rewind that for us’.
“The pressure you’re under in the VAR is intense. I know from operating in the VAR room you’re exhausted. It’s very mentally stressful.
“It’s not the same physical effect on you but mentally it’s very stressful. We don’t just come here and sit back.
“But there will less forgiveness if the guy sitting in here doesn’t get that right. I think that’s just being honest.”
He accepts, however, there will be mistakes in the early days - even if he and SFA head of referees Crawford Allan wouldn’t go nearly as far as SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell’s assertion, publicly voiced last week, that it could be ‘horrendous’ initially.
Allan said: “Based on experience from every other country we are not naïve enough to think there won’t be a few challenges. We might take a few seconds longer to do a clip review than they might do at FIFA for the World Cup because they have the best referees who have been doing VAR for ever.
“Every country has shared their experiences and in terms of positivity it is great we’ve got VAR. If I give you a driving licence example, the guys have just been given their driving licence and they’ve been passed by FIFA.
“If you drive a car more often after you pass your test you get more comfortable with the machinery around you, you get better at using it. That’s just a natural part of human nature.
“It is going to take a few weeks to develop that skill to a higher level than just being able to drive. We are going to become increasingly confident, so in terms of positivity we can’t wait.
“I am a kid in a sweet shop at the moment, brimming with nervous excitement for next weekend. I don’t know what I will be like next Friday. But we take the benefits and embrace the challenges.”
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