Scotland’s head of referees, Crawford Allan, is to leave his post at the end of the season as the Scottish FA conducts a review of the role in light of ongoing VAR controversies.
The governing body says Allan, who has been in post for four years, is leaving “to pursue new opportunities”.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell admits that “VAR processes need to improve”.
But he urged all to “work together to alleviate the unsustainable pressure on match officials and VAR operators”.
Maxwell wants “to remove the convenient blame culture attached to subjective or unpopular decisions and to ensure more focus is placed on the entertainers rather than the on-field facilitators”.
He told the SFA website: “This includes all key external stakeholders having a better understanding of the laws of the game, the lines of intervention for VAR and the adopted guidance within Scottish football, especially in subjective areas such as the handball law.”
The SFA it has started its search to “ensure an experienced replacement will be in place for the new season”.
“This will coincide with a planned review of the operational priorities of the department based on the insights to date from VAR implementation, as well as feedback from category one match officials and VAR operators, the Scottish FA’s professional game board, the SPFL’s competitions working group and the independent review panel,” Maxwell said.
The chief executive thanked Allan for “his efforts in implementing VAR within Scottish football and guiding refereeing through the Covid-19 pandemic”, describing the introduction of video assistant referee system as “a thankless task”.
Allan considers it “an honour” to have been in charge “during such an historic period of change” following his 30 years as a match official, including 15 years in the top-flight.
“While there are refinements and improvements to be made to VAR, as there are in leagues across the world, it has taken a monumental effort from my team at the Scottish FA and the match officials to have it embedded in the Premiership and cup matches at Hampden Park,” he said.
“VAR is only one aspect of the role, albeit one that can overshadow the positive strides we have taken forward.”