Warburton: Follow rugby’s lead
MARK WARBURTON last night called on football to adopt the touchline video monitor system utilised during the Rugby World Cup. Unhappy with the lack of protection offered to on-loan winger Nathan Oduwa against Livingston by referee Andrew Dallas in midweek, the Rangers manager attended a meeting of clubs and referees’ chief John Fleming yesterday afternoon. He is of the view that officials need help rather than abuse, and favours football following the lead of rugby and tennis by introducing a review system for contentious decisions. The imperfections of rugby’s TMO system were illustrated when underfire South African Craig Joubert wrecked Scotland’s World Cup quarter-final hopes against Australia and was denied a second look at his erroneous offside decision. But a sympathetic Warburton said: ‘You look
at the Rugby World Cup and what happened with the incident in the Australia game and the furore that caused and the back-page headlines it created. ‘If there are ways to avoid those type of incidents, then you’ve got to take them. ‘You watch an incident in a football match and you watch it a dozen times and still half the panel are saying left and half are saying right. ‘How hard is it for these guys when they have half a second to make a decision? It’s so difficult for them. So he or she has got to be given every bit of assistance, it’s as simple as that and we have got to find ways of helping.’ FIFA has other issues occupying its time, but Warburton believes Television Match Officials or video replays are a part of football’s future at a time when the standard of Scotland’s referees is a fevered topic. ‘People could look into it, but we have got to find a way’ he added. ‘Any way we can improve the game, then that has to be our aim. Whether it’s the governing body, staff, coaches or whatever, we all need help. It’s not easy and it’s a tough job. ‘Look at Hawk-Eye in tennis. Ten years ago would we have said that would have happened? Now it’s in and it’s invaluable. ‘I am sure at some stage down the line it will happen. At some stage, the game will look to constantly improve and it will happen. When? I don’t know.’ Drawing a veil over an Oduwa row which ended with Livingston boss Mark Burchill being dragged into a xenophobia row and apologising, Warburton said: ‘Whatever comments were made were made in the heat of the moment and I don’t want to speak about other manager’s comments. Our only focus is St Mirren on Sunday.’ Warburton’s hopes of finally tying up a deal with John Eustace, meanwhile, have been delayed further by an unspecified domestic issue, saying: ‘It’s one unfortunately I am sure we have all been through. We will keep in touch with John and will talk about football soon.’