When the SFA delivered their verdict and handed out a hefty sanction last week, Elliot Watt must have had a wry smile at the absurdity of it all.
Knowing that a move to Turkey to join Samsunspor was nearing completion, Motherwell midfielder Watt would have laughed it off as an irrelevance.
There was no prospect of him having to serve the four-match ban — a quite ridiculous punishment — over comments he made in a social media post at the end of last season.
Motherwell were also fined £5,000 by the governing body in relation to a post about the fall-out from the game against Celtic at Fir Park in May.
It is understood that they are considering their position and whether they have any grounds to take legal action.
Frankly, good luck to them. Challenge the process. Scottish football needs clubs willing to be robust and hold the SFA to account, rather than a meek acceptance of edicts from on high.
Former Motherwell midfielder Elliot Watt’s massive ban won’t follow him to Turkey
For all that Watt may have moved on to pastures new, and for all that last season may now be a distant memory, this whole episode stinks to high heavens.
It all goes back to the stoppage-time penalty awarded to Celtic for the alleged handball against Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson.
It was a highly contentious decision to say the least, and one which dramatically changed the permutations of the title race heading into the final day.
There is no sense in going over old ground and analysing the decision itself. Instead, let’s strip it back and look at what’s happened since.
Watt branded it as ‘the worst VAR decision in history’ in a post on his social media account.
He was not alone in that assessment. Gary Lineker took the same view, as did millions of others on social media as footage of the incident went viral.
Watt merely expressed an opinion. In their own social media post, Motherwell reflected the exasperation of their support, and perhaps the wider football public.
The SFA have chosen to hammer them. Make no mistake, this is not discipline. Nor is it healthy. It is suppression, a naked attempt to silence dissent against a failing system.
The same could be said of the SFA’s decision to ban Michael Stewart from Hampden last season after he repeatedly criticised the standard of refereeing.
Where are they going with this? What are they looking to achieve? Can they not recognise the optics of how bad this looks?
The fallout from Fir Park incident involving Sam Nicholson and a late penalty award rumbles on
The SFA also took a flamethrower to all and sundry at the end of last season after John Beaton’s personal details had been leaked online.
At no point did they pause for a moment and engage in a period of self-reflection. There was no acceptance or recognition of there being a problem.
Everyone knows our referees are not good enough, and that the use of VAR in Scottish football is deeply flawed. Everyone bar the SFA, it would seem.
What is most intriguing is the fact that Derek McInnes still has a charge hanging over him and a disciplinary hearing still to come.
Given the precedent that has been set, we can safely assume that McInnes will start the new season serving a touchline ban. Quite a lengthy one, too.
Whilst in charge of Hearts, McInnes branded the decision to award the aforementioned penalty to Celtic as ‘disgusting’.
He also claimed that his team were ‘up against everybody’, given some of the decisions which had gone against them over the final weeks of the season.
His comments were far stronger and more controversial than anything Watt said. The punishment, one can only assume, will reflect that.
The SFA’s stance on this is pretty clear. No player shall criticise officials in a manner suggesting ‘bias or incompetence’ or impinge on their character.
On paper, it sounds reasonable — protect the officials from abuse. In practice, it has become a blanket to smother legitimate frustration.
The message from Hampden is clear: keep quiet, or else. This is a dictatorship whereby the expression of valid concerns is met with a heavy hand.
Scottish football has wrestled awkwardly with VAR since its introduction in 2022, with debates over consistency, the threshold for intervention, and the human element that still underpins it.
New Rangers manager Derek McInnes is expected to land a heavy punishment from the SFA
Willie Collum’s defence of the Motherwell decision in his review did little to quell the storm. If the SFA’s own head of refereeing must publicly justify decisions that have sparked global outcry, perhaps the issue lies deeper than one player’s tweet.
Yet rather than address systemic questions around officiating standards, transparency in VAR protocols or the pressure on referees, the SFA have opted to turn the whole thing into a diktat.
The SFA will no doubt claim this is about protecting the integrity of officiating. Nonsense. It’s about protecting referees from proper accountability.
Steven McLean was the referee who failed to award Hearts a penalty in a 1-1 draw against Motherwell in the home straight of the title race, a decision Collum later admitted had been wrong.
McLean’s reward? To take charge of the Scottish Cup final. Obviously.
It was utterly preposterous. As long as Scottish referees continue to fail upwards, it is difficult to see meaningful change coming to fruition.
The SFA are defending the indefensible. This new policy of seeking to silence any dissent is one that should concern us all.
Broader questions linger. What constitutes acceptable criticism? Is every post-match grumble now fair game for sanction? Will we see managers reduced to bland platitudes, while genuine issues around consistency and refereeing standards go unaddressed?
The danger is that the fear of punishment might override honesty. That serves no one: not players, not fans, not the officials themselves who might benefit from constructive dialogue rather than enforced silence.
As the new season approaches, the SFA has an opportunity to reflect. The sanctions handed out to Watt and Motherwell, and the impending McInnes verdict, could define their approach to governance for the foreseeable.
Football without debate and opinion is a soulless prospect. Nobody should be muzzled for expressing an opinion. It’s a reality none of us should be willing to entertain.
