SCOTLAND’S leading referees have received specialist coaching from airline pilots ahead of the new season in an attempt to improve the use of VAR, SFA head of refereeing Willie Colum revealed yesterday.
The country’s leading match officials were shown clips of pilots communicating with each other in “life or death situations” at a gathering at the national performance centre outside Edinburgh on Sunday.
Howard Webb, the head of refereeing at PGMOL in England, turned to pilots and air traffic controllers two seasons ago following a number of high-profile VAR controversies in Premier League games and enjoyed positive results from doing so.
Collum felt the presentation at Oriam at the weekend was an invaluable exercise and is optimistic that Scottish referees, who have been working with SFA VAR manager and former FA Cup final referee Martin Atkinson since last October, will be more effective during the 2025/26 campaign.
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“We have had aviation experts in, pilots,” he said. “They showed us good examples of critical situations, of life and death situations. People think football is life and death, but it is not quite the same. But it is an intense environment and we wanted to know how people communicate there.
“Sometimes the VARs are speaking and they are not really asking the right open question. They could be leading the AVAR. But the pilot is not asking the co-pilot questions that he is just going to agree with. You actually see some examples where they physically sit back. There was lots about communication.
“Another key thing was that nobody in a cockpit uses the words ‘I think’. It needs to be concrete, it needs to be, ‘Here is what it is actually showing, here is what the outcome is’. Rather than saying it is something that I am thinking, we need it to be more factual.”
Collum continued, “In England, there was a couple of high-profile decisions which there was a negative reaction to. There was a lot of debate about the communication after a Spurs game against Liverpool. England were the first to say, ‘We need to have a real serious think about what is being said in the room’.
“It can’t just be a run-of-the-mill conversation, we need to be able to use the right phrases, we need to have the right processes’. What we are finding through aviation, is that you need robust processes. We definitely think that in England you can see evidence of that.
“Now, if you go in you would think, ‘Something is not working right here because I am not hearing anything’. But it is about speaking when you need to speak so that it is relevant. We also know that talking, talking, talking can make people tired. So we don’t want our VARs and AVARs being tired.”
Collum revealed that the country’s Class 1 referees were played footage of pilots communicating with each other after a plane engine had caught fire in mid-air during the get-together at Hampden.
“We saw examples of that yesterday,” he said. “Nobody can deny that the pilots adrenalin is pumping and they are fearing, they’re frightened, they’re worried.
“It is about keeping calm because you have got a process and you know to follow that process. We want the same. When there are critical, difficult decisions for the VAR to make they have a process there.”
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Collum continued, “The pilots also analysed a lot of our clips and said from a technical point of view they didn’t know what the right or the wrong decision was. But what they did say was, ‘Could there have been less talk? Could there have been a different approach? Could there have been a more open-ended question to the AVAR?’
“They see a lot of similarities between what is happening in the VAR room and the cockpit. Again it is not life and death, but in football, maybe even in the west of Scotland, it is up there.”
Asked if he had any intention of tapping into any other industries going forward in an attempt to improve the use of VAR and the standard of officiating in Scotland, Collum said, “Martin has come from a police background. We don’t want to go way out there and way wide, but any industry that can help us we would be keen to use it. I think a few guys were put off flying yesterday, but it was a good exercise.”
Former FIFA Elite Referee Collum replaced Crawford Allan as the head of refereeing at the SFA last year and has had to contend with criticism from clubs, managers, players and supporters about mistakes which his officials have made in big matches during his first year in his new role.
However, he stressed that he and his staff at the governing body are working tirelessly to get major calls right and insisted he had positive relationships with numerous major stakeholders throughout the Scottish game.
“We are working hand in hand with the PFA for the time ever in Scotland. We had a meeting with the PFA Scotland chairman Michael Devlin yesterday.
“We’ve got nothing to hide. We want to show people what we are about and the coaching we are delivering. I’ve always said to any club they can pick up the phone any time or come here and watch any clip with us and we’ll talk them through it. I don’t control what the clubs decide to do.
“But on my part the door is always open. I welcome them coming and engaging with us. I would prefer that than anything that goes public, but at the end of the day I don’t control the clubs or what actions they take. But I am confident I have built up good relations with every club and every coach in the country.
“We can learn from each other. I don’t want anyone thinking that the only time managers will engage with me is after bad decisions. I have very good relationships where I feel we are learning from what they are saying to us as well, including the players. I know I have played my part with the door being wide open.”
