The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)

Kettlewell in plea for ‘pack a punch’ VAR conversati­ons

- BY GAVIN MCCAFFERTY

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has called for serious talks between match officials and clubs after failing to get the clarity he wanted over their disallowed goal against Aberdeen.

The club issued a statement in the wake of their 1-0 defeat against the Dons on March 16, during which Lennon Miller had a goal disallowed following a VAR review after the ball appeared to brush against Theo Bair’s arm on the way to the midfielder.

The feeling of injustice was compounded by the fact Ross County scored against Motherwell earlier in the season despite Victor Loturi handling in the build-up, and the fact that there was no VAR check when the ball hit Graeme Shinnie’s arm in the Aberdeen box late in the game.

The explanatio­n Motherwell received was that Bair’s handball was deemed deliberate while the others were not, but the club stated inconsiste­ncy over decisions, lengthy VAR interventi­ons and lack of clarity over decisions were seriously impacting fans’ enjoyment of matches.

There has been no contact from the SFA since the statement, and Kettlewell said: “There will be a lot of supporters that still wonder why one or two decisions were given. People believe we do that as a football club just to be argumentat­ive and it’s just this quest against match officials. It’s really not.

“We thought long and hard about our actions and it was a football club decision. We felt the statement was measured and transparen­t and, also, it related to the rules of the game.

“There was initial contact (with the SFA) before our statement, but there’s not been any further contact off the back of our statement. The one thing I will stress, that’s one slice of the cake. I have been shot at, that I’m just crying about a couple of decisions against Aberdeen. I’m not – I am putting in one element from ourselves.

“If you go across every other team in the top flight, they will give you similar examples.

“I believe there has to be some form of clarity in terms of the decisions made because I still don’t have an explanatio­n that justifies why Lennon Miller’s goal was chalked off.

“I’m still a little bit in the dark in terms of the goal we concede against Ross County and the goal we scored against Aberdeen, and how there’s a different outcome. There still, in my mind, has not been any clarity. But I genuinely, genuinely think there is a bigger picture here.

“I have said all along the clubs have to come together. There’s an obvious grievance here in how, not so much with VAR, but how some of the rules have been implemente­d, sometimes what we are seeing, sometimes how many times we are looking at it and checking it, sometimes the communicat­ion, not just between officials and clubs but between themselves. There is a big thing here.

“The football clubs, the referees’ associatio­n and the SFA – everybody – in my opinion, must look at this and realise there is an obvious issue and the only way to move forward, we have to come together, whether it’s dropping the ego and making sure that we are listening to others.

“That’s the only way we can move things forward.

“These conversati­ons must pack a punch and bring about some form of change, otherwise we will be sitting here at the same time next year having the same sort of chat.”

 ?? ?? LET’S GET TOGETHER: Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell has called for serious talks between match officials and clubs.
LET’S GET TOGETHER: Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell has called for serious talks between match officials and clubs.

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