New referees chief on VAR, 'mobbing', handball & ex-players

Willie Collum has outlined how he hopes to not only improve officiating but Scottish football as a whole in his new role as the country's head of referees.

The 45-year-old former Fifa referee has begun a series of meetings with officials, clubs, managers, players and fans as he looks to give all "stakeholders" a voice in shaping how games are officiated.

Collum was among those to receive criticism last season as decisions by video assistant referees (VAR) in particular attracted controversy.

"We acknowledge as match officials that last season things could and should have been better," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound.

Collum highlighted six main areas where he will be looking for improvements:

• Fewer VAR interventions for handball

• Action against mobbing of referees by players

• Greater communication and transparency about decisions

• Speed up VAR decision-making

• Giving stakeholders a voice

• More former players becoming referees

New handball emphasis

Collum admitted the way the handball rule was interpreted in Scotland last season compared with some other countries caused some controversy.

"If you look at certain countries in Europe, I'm not saying it should be, but if you go to Spain, almost every handball is punished there," he pointed out.

"There was a difference last season in interpretation with our colleagues in England."

However, repeating what he said in Friday's media briefing, Collum explained: "We want to make that much more related to football expectation.

"There won't be as many interventions for handball."

Meanwhile, referring to a red card shown to Kilmarnock's Joe Wright for a handball on the goalline against Rangers at Ibrox in May, Collum said: "Not an intentional handball but a punishable handball last season was a red card. This season, it will be a yellow card."

Speeding up VAR

Collum said the intention was to follow the lead shown at Euro 2024, where there were fewer VAR interventions, and understood the frustration of fans left waiting for a decision inside Premiership grounds.

He said referees had focused this week on improving the time it takes for a decision to be reached.

However, he added: "People have to understand that we don't want to make a big mistake by missing something in the build-up to a goal. We need to keep our focus on accuracy.

"If we speed things up and make an error, we will be heavily criticised for it.

"We are working hard on getting decisions right on the field so that VAR is not involved."

Better communication with fans

Collum said it "would be great" to see an improvement in communication with fans over VAR decisions via a stadium tannoy or a scoreboard as a way of improving "transparency".

"We are open to that as long as the finances are there," he said, while revealing that a meeting had been held in the last few days about the possibility.

A monthly explanation

Collum said top referees had been eager for greater transparency about decisions "for some years".

"It is a frustration at times for us as well that we couldn't say what happened or what we were thinking," he said.

"I've been working with the SFA communications team and we would like to move towards a monthly update that we'd make public where we'd show a variety of clips and we would discuss the decision.

"We would be able to explain why an error was made or how we came to a conclusion about a particular incident."

Tackling 'mobbing'

Only captains were allowed to speak to referees about controversial decisions during Euro 2024 and it is a system Collum thinks worked well.

"We will immediately adopt the captain-only approach from next week in the league campaign," he said.

"Every player on the pitch can talk to the referee. But, when an explanation is needed, we want that to be with the captain."

Collum said officials want players to understand why decisions have been reached via "a respectful dialogue" that will reduce the number of yellow cards for dissent.

Giving 'stakeholders' a voice

Collum thinks more dialogue with managers, players and supporters will help improve decision-making by referees and officials.

"I want to give them a voice," he said. "I've learned a lot this week talking to the players and coaches."

Ways to improve VAR

Collum views the semi-automated offside decisions, which were used at Euro 2024, as "a great system" and he would "bring it in right away" if he could.

"However, that costs £1.2m to implement over a season," Collum said. "I don't make the decisions about budget there."

Asked about the suggestion by some football pundits that former players should be employed in the VAR control room, Collum added: "I don't know any country that has brought ex-players into the video operations room.

"What we are open to is talking to them. We do want to open the door wide to more ex-players coming into refereeing."