Scottish VAR Review - March 2025

[CaptainsPlease]

Some interesting incidents here

• 0:26 - VAR 'factually' disallows a goal for ball out of play when the footage is not conclusive
• 4:37 - VAR 'factually' disallows a goal for handball when the footage is not conclusive
• 12:37 - VAR agrees with on-field decision that player should be sent off for SFP but not for the reason given, so recommends an on-field review which leads to a downgrade
• 21:00 - potential penalty for push in back, VAR does not intervene (correctly - not C&O) but I disagree with Collum's view that this isn't a foul
• 26:21 - missed VAR intervention for a potential penalty, textbook example of why a touch on the ball does not negate a foul

 

[NoFoulsAllowed]

For the 21 minute - incident I just instinctively thought the pushed player showed absolutely no strength. A penalty to me seems wrong. But the KMI Panel went 3|2 so shows that this is one of those subjective ones, where both answers are correct. Was quite cool to hear a Colin say a few times either decision could be backed.

The 26min - incident to me looked as if the tackling player accelerated the ball which could have made all the difference. Again I'm not 100% sure I could agree on a penalty.

 

[RichardRef]

I think this months VAR review does referees and the SFA no favours. Mostly communication or decision making calamities are showcased in this one.

The first three are shambolic in my opinion.

Push in the back not enough for me to give a pen in game and certainly not clear and obvious for a review.

Last one as clear a reckless challenge as I’ve seen. No intervention here is poor non-use of VAR.

 

[LothianRef]

I agree that it doesn’t show the official in the best light this month. However if you’re going to do a programme like this then you can’t just ignore wrong decisions and never talk about them. Those first two clips that are discussed were always going to be included because they were such key decisions in the context of the respective games. What did surprise me was how poorly the VAR seemed to review the incident in the first clip, with the AVAR telling him multiple times (correctly) there wasn’t clear evidence of the ball being out of play.