Scottish FA introduces aviation experts to assist referees

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) has employed aviation experts to improve communication between Video Assistant Referees (VAR) and help them stay calm under pressure, according to BBC Sport.

The SFA’s Head of Refereeing, Willie Collum, announced that his referees met with pilots to enhance their performance under pressure. Collum also hopes that the aviation experts will help enhance communication between officials at the VAR centre and those in stadiums, starting from the new league season which commences on Saturday.

Collum voiced to BBC Scotland: “These two top people in the UK who help train pilots were talking to us about communication in the cockpit in very, very difficult situations, very much under pressure.”

“Pilots, it's life or death, people would say it's life or death in football as well,” he joked.

“But we need to work really hard with our teams in the VAR centre about how they're communicating, about keeping calm, about thinking about the facts, and being really rational in their approach there and looking at that…

These are the levels we're going to. We want to improve and we'll do anything we can to improve.”

He elaborated: “Was it open questions, the VAR was asking the AVAR [Assistant Video Assistant Referee], not leading the AVAR, so that the AVAR was able to contribute their opinion…

These are really, really important things. Again, though, in the heat of battle, we need the VARs and the AVARs to operate like that…

We've been in the VAR centre six, seven times pre-season to train and that took us to another level yesterday as well. And we'll incorporate that into our work when the season starts.”

The BBC has also highlighted other changes for the upcoming season:

• Drop ball (a method of restarting play when the ball hits the referee, for example) - previously whoever was in possession of the ball when it struck the referee received a drop ball. It will now be the team who would have gained possession if it had not struck the official. Any drop ball in the box goes to the goalkeeper.
• Double touch - as was seen in the Women's Euros final on Sunday, if a player touches the ball with both feet in a penalty and scores, the penalty will be retaken. If the player suffers a double touch and either misses or has their penalty saved, it's an indirect free kick (an indirect free kick requires another player to touch the ball before it can legally enter the goal).
• Eight-second rule - Goalkeepers will now get penalised with a corner awarded against them if they do not release the ball within eight seconds. An indirect free kick will be awarded if a player impedes or obstructs.
• While all players can speak to the referee, it will remain the duty of the captain to be the sole contact during any big-decision moments. When the captain is a goalkeeper, an outfield player will be designated to approach the official.

These new rules and the adoption of aviation specialists to assist referees may also help tackle the abuse of officials amid growing concerns in football.

As Collum also expressed: “A key thing was that nobody in a cockpit uses the words ‘I think.’ It needs to be concrete. It needs to be ‘here is what it is actually showing, here is what the outcome is.’ Rather than saying it is something that I am thinking, we need it to be more factual.” The aviation experts and the introduction of more concrete rules may help officials become more confident within their decisions and make them less disputable.

Talks are also continuing about enhancing stadium technology so referees can communicate VAR decisions to fans during games, according to The Times.

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