Willie Collum has spoken to Celtic and SPFL clubs about potential big VAR change

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Celtic fans have had their fill of dubious VAR decisions over the years.

When the video technology was introduced in October 2022, Celtic suffered immediately as VAR denied a stonewall penalty after a handball in a win over Hearts at Tynecastle.

Since then, there has been controversy after controversy as VAR not only continued to get big Celtic decisions wrong, but also caused huge delays as fans sit baffled inside stadiums.

But all that could be about to change this season as Willie Collum prepares for another season of the SFA’s VAR Review show.

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Willie Collum has spoken to Celtic about improving VAR ‘communication’

Collum has to be commended for trying to add some transparency by publicly speaking about VAR over the last 12 months.

However, it seems that there could be big changes on the way after the head of referees had a meeting with Celtic and the rest of the SPFL clubs this season.

Collum told Sky Sports, “We hope, in time, that people will see really good communication between the on field officials and the officials in the VAR.

“I said to the referees, I’ve also said to the clubs and I’ve said to the media that it’s important we eradicate the decisions that people just don’t understand.

“There will always be subjective decisions in football, everybody accepts that. What we find very difficult to defend is decisions where nobody understands why we’ve reached a different conclusion. So that would be a target to reduce the amount of those decisions.”

Collum’s discussion with Celtic about introducing ‘in-stadium comms’

As for fans, it appears that there could be changes coming that will help keep them in the loop as VAR reviews and makes decisions in real time in stadiums.

Collum continued, “As referees, we’re always keen to improve the product. We’re always keen to embrace any technology, any new technology.

“We had a really good meeting with the clubs recently, and we’ve decided to keep monitoring the situation in terms of the in-stadium comms, how it’s working in other countries, and we’ll revisit that in the New Year and have further discussions about would that be a possibility here in Scotland.”

With refereeing and VAR standards still the big major talking point most weekends, fans will welcome these changes and look forward to more transparency from Collum and the SFA.