SFA seek Sky Sports VAR talks after 'easy way out' claims from former Celtic star and pundit
Former Celtic star Walker was critical of language used by the video assistant referee which he can hear from VAR HQ at Clydesdale House, not the referee, when covering games for the broadcaster, adding to concerns regarding the use and effectiveness of the technology in the Scottish Premiership.
Now, according to the Daily Record, SFA Ian Maxwell is set for a meeting with Sky Sports to discuss the accusations.
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Hide AdWalker said: “I won’t mention any names and I won’t name the teams involved but there was an instance where a couple of things happened in the space of a second or two. And I heard the VAR say ‘the easiest way out of this, is if it’s offside’. That to me is really poor language. There should be no idea that we get an easy way out. You have to look at what’s happening on the pitch and apply the laws of the game – don’t look for the easy way out.
He added: “That’s not good enough. It’s awful. I couldn’t believe what I was listening to.”
Maxwell defended VAR earlier this week, claiming “it is working”, following a number of controversies which has led to increasing scrutiny.
“We’re not saying it has been perfect to date, and we’re obviously working as hard as we can to try and improve that. I think it’s worth recognising that we’re only five or six months into VAR and there are countries that have had it a lot longer than us that are still seeing issues. We want it to be as smooth and straightforward as possible and we’re working hard as we can to achieve that.
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Hide Ad“We want decisions to be right. The reason for implementing VAR was to increase the number of decisions that we’re making on the pitch. There obviously have been teething problems but that’s part of implementation and part of a bedding-in process. We want to ensure that as many decisions are being made on the pitch as we can.”
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