SFA vows to ease pressure on referees as Allan quits
Scottish FA chief Ian Maxwell said authorities must seek to alleviate "the unsustainable pressure on match officials and VAR operators" as it was announced Crawford Allan will step down as head of referee operations at the end of the season.
Allan, a former category one official, took up the post in January 2020 and played a key role as video technology was introduced into Scottish football in 2022.
VAR controversies have become almost a weekly occurrence this season and a mid-season review conducted by an independent panel highlighted 16 mistakes in the cinch Premiership during the first two rounds of fixtures.
The game's ruling body says Allan's departure to pursue new opportunities "will effect a review of the existing role and remit to reflect the demands placed on it by the introduction and optimisation of VAR, with a planned review of the operational priorities of the department based on the insights to date from VAR implementation".
SFA chief executive Maxwell said: "Firstly, I would like to thank Crawford for his four years as head of referee operations and especially his efforts in implementing VAR within Scottish football and guiding refereeing through the Covid-19 pandemic.
"In many ways, overseeing the introduction of VAR has been a thankless task.
"Yet it has been essential for
Scottish football to remain at the forefront of on-field technology and in-step with the leading competitions across Europe, as well as ensuring our match officials and VAR operators can continue to operate at Fifa and Uefa level.
"Crawford has been integral to that process - from feasibility, to training, to roll-out - for much of his tenure and we are grateful that he will remain in place and provide continuity until the end of the season.
"Whilst there is a recognition that, globally, the VAR processes need to improve, this is a challenge for all key stakeholders within Scottish football to work through in the context of our own domestic competition.
"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. "We must work together to alleviate the unsustainable pressure on match officials and VAR operators, 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.”
Allan, 56, said it has been “an honour” to lead referee operations and that the implementation of VAR took a “monumental effort" from his team. The recruitment process will begin immediately to ensure an experienced replacement is in place for the new season.
4 years Crawford Allan has been head of
ref operations
"serious" and stated in its conclusion:"thefourpoints sanction is not to punish Forest so much as it is to be fair to the other clubs; to give the public confidence that when a club invests as Forest did to compete in the Premier League, it still needs to comply with the PSR threshold for losses."
The commission ruling added: "When a club like Forest took the risk of effectively ignoring the PSR warning from its finance director before the January window in 2023, and rather than looking to sell players, it added players to its squad, ultimatelyleavingitselfwith just two weeks to sell Player A [Brennan Johnson] in the summer 2023 window, such risk taking and 'sailing close to the wind' needs a proportionate sanction to maintain the integrity of the Premier League."
Everton were docked ten points in November for breaching PSR in the period up to the 2021-22 season, which was reduced to six on appeal. A second complaint against the Toffees over a breach in the period up to last season is still being dealt with.
The ruling shows the Premier League pushed for a six-point sanction - with eight points as an initial figure to account for Forest's excess over the threshold being 77 per cent greater than Everton's, but discounted by two points to reflect Forest's early plea and co-operation.
Forest's defence was centred around the sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham on the final day of the 2023 transfer window, which occurred a short period later than necessary. But the commission said that transaction was not close enough to the PSR deadline of June 30, 2023.