SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum has admitted that “miked-up” match officials could start announcing to Scottish football fans why they have made major calls as early as this season if clubs agree to finance the technology needed.
Collum admitted the governing body has held talks with the leading clubs in the country about introducing goal-line technology and in-stadium communication systems in the future.
The former FIFA referee believes that having officials personally explaining why they have awarded a penalty, shown a red card or disallowed a goal will help to increase transparency and will be straightforward to put in place.
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"We've certainly been speaking to the clubs about other aspects of technology, goal-line technology being one of them,” he said.
“We've also been speaking to the clubs about in-stadium comms. The decisions are financial. We need the clubs to make those decisions.
“I would have open arms to any of these. We would certainly embrace them. But we won't use a lack of something as an excuse for anything. We'll do the best we can with the resources we have got. But would we embrace goal-line technology? Would we embrace stadium comms? Absolutely. We are closer. We've had good discussions with the clubs.
“Let's take the in-stadium comms. When the referee goes to the monitor and can make an announcement you're enhancing transparency even more. I'm about that, about even more people seeing. We're also taking into account what clubs are saying and the in-stadium experience for fans. We want to support that as well.”
“It’s hard for me to say how much it would cost because you'd need to look at stadium infrastructure. Say you go to Aberdeen or Motherwell, they might have two completely different tannoy systems. It would be about how fibre you need to put in, for example. So it would be crazy for me to put a ballpark figure on it.”
Asked how long it would take to implement if clubs did give in-stadium communication the green light, Collum said, "We would train the referees immediately.
“In England, they trained the referees and it's not as simple as people think, going to the monitor and making an announcement. You've got to get the wording right, sell decisions. But we would move fast with that.
“If we get a green light for that, we would introduce it within a season even. I don't mean within a season meaning next season, I mean we would be happy to introduce it in a current season.”
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Collum, who took over from Crawford Allan as head of refereeing at the SFA last year, believes that having in-stadium announcements will help to humanise referees.
"People just see us running about a pitch on a Saturday and they don't know us as individuals,” he said. “But they love football and love refereeing. I think these things have helped humanise refereeing a bit better.
"But I don't ever think referees want to be celebrities. We're not the main protagonists in the game, and we don't want that. Sometimes that can be a criticism levelled at us, where we want to be the centre of attention. Nothing can be further from the truth.
“No referee in the country wants to be that. We want everything to be low-key and out the road. That would make sense for us, but we also want to show people who we are away from the pitch.”
