SYSTEM FAILURE

SFA bid for VAR transparency was botched - but review has shone light on major blunders

There's a feeling on Hampden's sixth floor the SFA were too honest in the I way they handled Willie Collum's Old Firm howler.

And furthermore, they won't make that mistake again.

The decision to instruct a retrospective review of the big incident at Celtic Park on December 30 did prove beyond question it would never have been a penalty in the first place, even if replays showed Alistair Johnston slapped the ball inside his own box.

But the furore caused by subsequently releasing a graphic that showed Abdallah Sima in an offside position a split second earlier had the polar opposite of its desired intention.

Rather than make the inner workings of VAR seem more open and transparent - the badly botched process smelled more like a cover-up than an act of good faith.

And it resulted in Rangers throwing all manner of tantrums while jumping up and down and demanding Collum be banished from officiating their games for the rest of time.

Crawford Allan winced yesterday when the subject came up during the latest mid-season review of his officials and their new technological hub at Clydesdale House.

After some considerable prompting, the head of Scotland's referees was finally obliged to admit Collum got his part in the derby day debacle wrong.

That the country's top whistler ought to have known better than to take it upon himself to dismiss the penalty appeal. That he reached the wrong conclusion when he did take matters into his own hands.

And that he should have triggered the proper process by advising onfield ref Nick Walsh to keep stalling while a review of the attacking phase of play could be conducted.