Involve former professionals & use more common sense? Pundits on VAR controversies

Seventeen months on from its introduction in Scottish football, VAR is rarely out of the headlines.

The latest chapter was the opening 45 minutes of Hearts' Sunday win over Celtic, given more prominence as an isolated game and one involving two of the top three sides in the Premiership.

Referees, VAR and the Scottish FA have regularly been in the firing line and the governing body may well have wished for Monday's promotional event for the Scottish Cup not to be taking place so soon after events at Tynecastle.

A penalty was awarded to each side, Celtic's Yang Hyun-jun had a yellow card upgraded to a red for a high boot and both teams had a goal ruled out for offside.

Celtic intend to appeal against the Yang red card and have "written to the SFA to raise our serious concerns regarding the use of VAR and the decisions made within the match". The SFA have been approached for comment by the BBC.

Neil Lennon, Graeme Souness and Alan Stubbs - all trophy winners as players and managers - were put up by cup sponsor Viaplay at national stadium Hampden to preview this weekend's quarter-finals. And they did not hold back.

'Who would want to be a referee today?'

Souness, who played for and managed Liverpool and Rangers, feels VAR is "not aiding" referees north and south of the border.

"When you've got the chance to look at something time and time again and from different angles and you're still making the wrong call, it's telling you something is not right," he said.

"It's showing them up in a bad light. I have to say it's the exact same in England.

"They know the first line of the book, the rule book, and they know every single rule in it, but they can't interpret when there's a coming together where the intent lies. They make the wrong call.

"They should involve ex-players to sit with the VAR referee and offer a different opinion and maybe they see it that way. VAR is just embarrassing them. Who would want to be a referee today?"

'Something's got to change'

Stubbs, a league title winner as a Celtic player and Scottish Cup-winning manager with Hibernian, agrees with Souness' view about refereeing standards in England and Scotland.

However, he questions whether involving former pros would be welcomed.

"Referees don't necessarily want to see former players or former managers in there," he explained. "They do need help, but it's what help that is.

"Referees across the whole of the UK need help. Some of referees on the pitch are not overturning the decisions because they're scared to upset their friends or their mates. They don't want to go against each other. Something's got to change.

"There's going to be some strange VAR decisions. We don't want VAR to have a part in the outcome of the [Premiership] title. We want the title to be won on merit by the best team over the season. VAR has to do as much as it possibly can to not get involved in the games."

Another of Stubbs comments struck a chord with regular criticisms of how VAR marriages the game's laws to how it is played.

"There has to be some common sense," he appealed. "The sending off [of Yang] will definitely divide opinion. For me, it's a yellow card.

"The referees have to be stronger on the pitch and back their decisions that they've made. I don't think the initial decision was wrong."

Of the handball given against Celtic's Tomoki Iwata, he said: "The penalty is farcical. This natural and unnatural position will create penalties as long as we keep going. The handball one is the most frustrating one going.

"If you get nudged in the air, your hands are not going to be by your side. Straight away, you're looking to try and find your balance and, when you want balance, your arms do come out. It's a really, really poor decision."

'The majority of the decisions were wrong'

Lennon, who managed Celtic to multi-trophy success and got Hibs promoted, sympathised with Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers' post-match comments.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with VAR," he said. "It's the people that make the decisions. It's not the technology. The technology's fine, we all see the technology.

"You have to say that all the decisions apart for the offside for [Hearts'] Lawrence Shankland were wrong. I didn't think Celtic's was a penalty. I certainly didn't think it was a red card because Yang - there's no real intent there, he's just trying to flick the ball over [Alex] Cochrane's head.

"A yellow card would've sufficed. I know people say he's endangering the player, he wasn't. I've seen people endanger players with high boots and that certainly wasn't the case from Yang.

"The penalty that Hearts got was beyond belief. Iwata's got his eyes closed, he's been bumped by [Alistair] Johnston, the ball lands on his arm and they come to the conclusion that it's a penalty, so I understand Brendan's frustrations.

"The majority of the decisions were wrong and they're impactful on the game in terms of the spectacle as well. I'm sure there will be a review into that performance. The referee's performance, there has to be questions asked about that - just on his decision-making more than anything else."

'It must be how the SFA are instructing refs'

Former referee Steve Conroy felt the Yang red card was justified but described the award of both penalties as "plain wrong", Celtic's having been given for Cochrane's challenge on Yang.

"There's nothing wrong with the technology," Conroy told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime. "It's our interpretation of it that is quite baffling at times.

"The fact that we get so many things wrong when we watch it repeatedly on replay and still call things wrong, I think that's quite worrying.

"The obvious route is how our guys are being trained and coached. It must be how the SFA are instructing our guys."

The Scottish Senior Football Referees' Association issued a statement on Monday that expressed how the union was "extremely disappointed and concerned by another weekend of targeted and personalised criticism of its members".

"It is regrettable that criticism, which we generally accept is a part of the game for players and coaches as well as referees, has become much more frequent, disproportionate, and personalised towards our members," they added.

The SFA regularly announce a list of decisions that its VAR independent review panel deemed to have been incorrect. The most recent bulletin highlighted 13 over the second round of Premiership fixtures.

However, perhaps another of Stubbs' remarks will chime more with supporters.

"Probably the less said about VAR the better."

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