MOMENT OF TRUCE ... AND FINALLY ACCEPTANCE VAR IS THE ANSWER
HANDS were shaken and home truths aired in a civilised manner. Admissions of human frailty, and of the suffering that goes with it, forced everyone in the room to acknowledge their own imperfection.
If few would gamble serious money on the current truce lasting even to the final kick of this Scottish Cup weekend, Craig Levein and Derek McInnes burying the hatchet — not in each other’s skulls — was seen by most as a good sign.
The very fact that ten Premiership managers were engaging in open dialogue with the forces of officialdom, meanwhile, created just an inkling of hope.
Thursday night’s crisis summit between coaches and referees, not to mention the SFA compliance officer and assorted other ‘partners’, would appear to have achieved its first goal.
Simply by getting people together in a more relaxed environment, a lot of the distrust has been taken out of the situation. And some understanding has been added to the mix.
Neil Lennon, appointed as a spokesman for his fellow gaffers, says the frontline managers still have a few match-day concerns to be addressed. Mainly about rules regarding acceptable levels of ‘debate’ within technical areas.
Asked if referees had shown some sort of acceptance that season 2018-19 has not been their finest to date, however, Lennon revealed: ‘Yeah, one of the guys said he didn’t sleep for four nights after he made a wrong decision.
‘So they all know that mistakes can be costly, not only for the clubs, the managers and the players but for themselves as well.
‘There was no awkwardness. There was debate but there were no raised voices.
‘It was people putting their points of view across, quite eloquently and quite forthright at times, and it was good to see both points of view.
‘I think it went well and I think the referees were very good. All the managers had a bit of a say as well. It wasn’t wailing and gnashing of teeth.
‘John Fleming (SFA head of referees) was there as well and it was good to see him there — we managed to make a few points to him.’
The thought that managers will now stop criticising referees entirely, for fear of feeding the kind of frenzy that culminated in John Beaton being threatened by excuse-seeking bampots, prompted a smile from Lennon.
‘I don’t think there was an embargo on that,’ he said. ‘But I think we all do need to take a look and take some responsibility after games in terms of how we word things — myself included — and try to find a little more balance.
‘But there are times when that can be difficult when emotions are running high and you are always going to be thrown curve-ball questions by the broadcasters looking for an instant reaction.
‘But what happened to John is just not good enough and it is unpalatable. I certainly don’t want to see that because referees are at a premium here and we have some very good referees.
‘And they have, on the whole, been good this season — and that is coming from me!
‘But they feel it when they make a mistake, as we all do, and we are just looking for a bit more common sense.
‘I think the more experienced referees can take a role in that and we made that clear to John (Fleming) and the boys who were there.
‘We just want a bit more common sense, particularly in the treatment of managers. Respect has to be a two-way thing.
‘John made a point that gesticulating by managers can permeate across to the players.
‘I disagree with that because I gesticulate quite a bit, emotionally, Craig (Levein) does as well.
‘But I said if you look at our disciplinary record last year and this year, it’s very good and we pride ourselves on our discipline on the pitch.
‘Sometimes it’s an instinctive reaction to move your arms or shout or whatever.
‘If you’ve got an experienced fourth official there they can calm the situation down very quickly. Not that it needs calming down, have a word with you and that’s the end of it.
‘In terms of managers being sent off, give them a warning, give them a yellow card and make it clear to the public.’
Semi-regular meetings between the various parties, something now on the schedule, may eventually reach some common ground on that point.
Levein, arguably the most outspoken critic of both refereeing performances and the system that backs them up, certainly seems in a better humour following Thursday night’s pow-wow in Perth.
Why, he even made peace with McInnes, laying to rest a public row pushed to the very brink in the closing days of 2018.
‘We shook hands and spoke in general about things,’ said the Hearts boss.
‘This business is emotional. But Derek and I get on really well. We’ve had our issues but we shook hands last night and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s nothing now — it’s gone.
‘There’s no doubt that sitting down, looking someone in the eye, in a relaxed environment, there’s something more human about that than the environment we normally meet in.
‘I’m talking even just about the other managers. On match-day, it’s a contest. It has to be a contest.
‘If you’ve not got those juices flowing through your body on match-day, then you’re in the wrong job.
‘The very nature of what we’re all trying to do, as managers, is beat each other.
‘So that is not an environment for being empathetic and understanding each other’s problems. Match day is not the right environment for that empathy.
‘And, again on matchday, referees make decisions that, by their very nature, are either for or against you.
‘If you don’t think they’re the right decisions, that creates anger and frustration.
‘So last night was good. It was good to sit down with the referees and John Fleming.
‘And the interesting thing for me, about this, is that in a choice between going full-time and introducing VAR, the referees all went for VAR.
‘That, again, shows a great willingness to improve. Because I don’t think there is a referee in the world who likes going home on a Saturday night and watching himself make a mistake.
‘It’s like us as managers. You don’t want to watch that. If there was another way I could think of to help me make fewer mistakes, I would certainly embrace it.
‘We sat and talked to people — and heard how frustrated refs were when they got decisions wrong and people were poring over it.
‘They want to be able to sleep on a Saturday night, Wednesday night, Friday night or whenever it is having done a good job.
‘The feeling in the room was that we all have to work together and understand each others situations.’
Both Lennon and Levein support VAR. Neither man is expecting to take a vow of silence, on disciplinary issues, until it is introduced.
Yet former Scotland boss Levein, recently hit with a one-game ban for his criticism of Bobby Madden, sees the video replay system as almost a cure-all for the entire game.
‘A lot of the times, as the person out front, you speak for the whole team, and you speak for the supporters,’ he explained.
‘If there have been four or five injustices and you don’t mention that, and that’s the frustration that’s building in the support, then you’re not representing them properly.
‘I think sometimes after a game there is a frustration for everybody and, as the guy that goes and stands in front of the cameras, somebody is expected to stand up and make a case.
‘It goes back to situations that have proven to be incorrect decisions.
‘I go back to Thursday night, the referees said that there is no way that any of them in this world want to make an incorrect decision.
‘So VAR is a no-brainer. I don’t understand how anybody could say it’s a bad idea.’