Accies skipper leaps to the
Five-times red-carded in a stormy career, Darian Mackinnon makes for an unlikely cheerleader for Scottish referees.
Yet as the clamour for reform – be it either the appointment of full-time officials or the introduction of VAR – grows ever louder, Hamilton’s shavenheaded skipper positions himself firmly in the corner of the men in black.
“I can understand why they want to introduce VAR, especially at the highest level where there’s so much money involved. But I quite like all the controversy,” he said.
“You want all that mad stuff, folk saying: ‘They’ve cost us the game’ and all that. Obviously you don’t want referees getting slaughtered every week, but these incidents make the game what it is.
“You see Rangers getting a goal that should have been given offside at Hearts, and then they didn’t get one at Dundee that they should have. If we didn’t have these incidents, people would have nothing to talk about.”
Accies are at Rangers this afternoon, a club that has arguably had more issues with officials this season than any other. The Light Blues lodged an official protest against Willie Collum and have an SFA hearing next week, at which they will have to answer to five charges brought against them by the ruling body. Mackinnon won’t comment on the complaints, but is happy to give his general impressions on the standard of officiating.
“I think some of the decisions are bad, but that overall referees do a good job,” he continued.