Willie Collum hopes the introduction of VAR will mark the end of referees hogging the headlines.
Scotland’s most high-profile whistler has endured his share of controversy during a fine career in the SPFL — and at the highest levels of UEFA and FIFA competition.
And he readily admits that many sleepless nights have been spent wishing for a “rewind button”.
Collum reckons VAR will provide that benefit to Scottish officials as the system prepares to make its Premiership debut on these shores when Hibernian host St Johnstone next Friday night.
“There is not a referee in the world who doesn’t want the opportunity to see a decision again,” emphasised Collum. “It will be a Godsend for all of us — that safety net.
Find out more about VAR and how it will work, as we take a tour of the VAR control room at Clydesdale House. pic.twitter.com/jC8VGmUC0U
— Scottish FA (@ScottishFA) October 13, 2022
“If I make an error, then I’ve got the chance to see it again. I won’t be worrying about what Sportscene show on Saturday night.
“I’ve been refereeing for a long time and, looking back, it would have been a dream come true to be able to see things again.
“Watching games at night or lying in bed thinking about a decision you made, I used to wish had a rewind button. We’ve all been in situations like that.
“This is the opportunity now. What referee wouldn’t want to change a (wrong) 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 after VAR. It wasn’t about the refereeing scandal on a Monday. It’s the fact the decision was corrected.”
Collum, however, is not naive enough to think that controversy will be eradicated when VAR arrives.
Indeed, there is ample evidence from England and further afield that punters and pundits will still have plenty to argue about.
“I’m going to be a wee bit controversial and say attention will now turn to the VAR,” Collum continued. “If you’re sitting in a room with screens the people EXPECT us to get it right.
“It’s not an easy situation sitting in here (VAR room).
“I had a vision of sitting watching a game of football in luxury and having a coffee and saying ‘that maybe didn’t look right’! Well, the pressure you’re under in the VAR is intense.
“It’s very mentally stressful.
“And there will less forgiveness if the guy sitting in here doesn’t get things right — that’s just being honest.”
However, Collum emphasised: “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 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.”
Crawford Allan: ‘Kid in a sweet shop’
The Scottish FA are ready for teething problems, as underlined when chief executive Ian Maxwell stated this week: “Everyone I speak to at UEFA tells me that the first three months are going to be horrendous.
“You can have your driving instructor sitting beside you for as long as you want. But your first time out on the motorway is a whole different ball game.”
However, the governing body’s head of refereeing, Crawford Allan, has articulated a sense of “nervous excitement” ahead of the system’s debut at Easter Road.
“We are going to become increasingly confident — we can’t wait,” said Allan.
“I am a kid in a sweet shop at the moment, brimming with nervous excitement.
“I don’t know what I will be like next Friday. But we take the benefits and embrace the challenges.”
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