FIFA released a list last week of the 170 match officials who have been selected to take charge of the World Cup. For those of a Scottish persuasion, a quick scan through the names and countries made for grim reading.
On the list were 52 referees, 88 assistant referees and 30 video match officials. With the new expanded format of the World Cup, it was also the biggest list of officials ever assembled for a major tournament.
But there was no sign of even a single, solitary saltire. No SCO abbreviation. On football’s grandest stage of all, Scottish referees once again have no representation. Zilch. Hee-haw.
Those who watch the SPFL Premiership every week are unlikely to be surprised by this latest snub. Our referees are not up to the required standard. Plain and simple. We all know it.
Mind you, with FIFA operating a quota system to include referees from every confederation, you do wonder if the officials from the likes of Somalia and Uzbekistan will be up to much either. But that’s by the by.
The point here is that Willie Collum is no closer to bridging the gap he himself identified when he took on the role of SFA head of referees two years ago.
John Beaton won’t be on the world stage alongside Rangers’ Belgium midfielder Nico Raskin
‘Our national team are reaching major tournaments and we need to get our referees there as well,’ said Collum at the time of his appointment. ‘It hurts. It’s painful for me.
‘We want our referees to be back at that top table and I will do everything I can to get them back there.’
Two years down the line, little has changed. If anything, Scottish referees are now further away from the big time than ever before.
This is not about blaming individual referees. Most are decent, honest men doing an impossible job in an environment where everyone — fans, players, managers, pundits — thinks they could do it better.
The problem is structural and cultural, with referees in Scotland only operating a part-time gig — and, most damningly of all, VAR has actually made it all worse.
It has lengthened games, killed momentum and moments of euphoria, and multiplied grievances rather than reducing them.
Collum was the last Scottish referee to see action at a major tournament back at Euro 2016.
Hugh Dallas lines up with Pierluigi Collina and the rest of the 2002 World Cup Final officials
Ten years have passed and we are actually going backwards. Hugh Dallas handling a World Cup quarter-final in 2002 might as well be from the days of horse and cart.
This isn’t bad luck. This is a blunt and damning verdict from FIFA, albeit one which few could argue with.
If the average man in the pub can spot that a Scottish referee has made an absolute pig’s ear of something, Pierluigi Collina’s FIFA selection panel are unlikely to disagree.
What compounds all of this is VAR. The expensive, over-hyped, soul-sapping technology that was supposed to drag Scottish refs into the big time has done the exact opposite.
It has left them looking more amateurish, more error-prone and further away from the global elite than at any point in the modern era.
From the moment it was introduced to Scottish football in 2022, there were two main arguments to support the use of VAR in Scotland.
Firstly, it would help our referees. They would get more big decisions correct and there would be far fewer howlers and controversies.
Willie Collum was the last Scots official to grace a major tournament, at Euro 2016 in France
Secondly, by becoming competent in the use of technology, it would also help Scottish referees stay relevant in the eyes of FIFA and UEFA.
But neither of these things have proven to be true. VAR in Scottish football rewards pedantry and nit-picking over basic common sense.
Our referees are not relevant to FIFA or UEFA for major tournaments because they are fundamentally not good enough. VAR has not solved that; it has only amplified the issue. The exile from major tournaments continues.
Collum comes across as a decent man with solid intentions. His monthly VAR review show started off as a good thing. It was designed to foster understanding. It was informative and showed a willingness to engage.
But, the longer the season has gone on, the SFA’s head of referees has sounded more and more like a lawyer trying to get his clients off on a technicality.
Supporters did not want nor ask for academic seminars on the precise angle of an armpit or big toe. They wanted football liberated from perpetual doubt and glaring errors.
Collum has frequently admitted that mistakes have been made, promised that lessons will be learned moving forward. But it never works out that way.
VAR has done nothing to calm the chaos that regularly surrounds Glasgow’s Old Firm derby
All of this has unfolded in one of the most dramatic and combustible seasons in living memory, one which sees a three-way title fight now entering the home straight.
The Old Firm circus has always been toxic. VAR hasn’t calmed it. Instead, it has turbocharged it.
Now both sets of fans have hours of slow-motion footage to pore over and seemingly demonstrate whatever allegation of bias they were trying to prove in the first place.
There is, of course, no bias. Any suggestions to the contrary are to be resisted. Scottish referees have a hard enough job without having to deal with the lunatic fringe.
But the system is clearly not fit for purpose. There are not enough camera angles, lines can often be drawn from an imperfect angle, and referees are often compounding their own errors.
Rangers are to host a meeting of all top-flight clubs with regards to the standard of officiating in Scottish football.
We have seen these types of summits a million times before. Rarely do they produce anything of genuine consequence.
The lack of camera angles is something which has popped up more and more over recent months. With SPFL Premiership clubs paying around £1.2m per year for existing technology, can we really expect them to fork out more money for a failing system?
Dallas flashes a yellow card to France midfielder Didier Deschamps at the 1998 World Cup
Unlikely. Just as unlikely as the clubs voting to scrap VAR altogether. Although they would, in theory, have the power to do that if they want.
The SFA will talk about pathways, investment and development. Collum will no doubt point to incremental improvements and the difficulty of the environment. Fair enough.
But results are what matter. And the results say Scotland is not even in the conversation for the biggest tournament on earth.
When you cannot get a single official onto an expanded FIFA list, you are not suffering from bad luck. You have a structural problem.
