VAR’s the issue, not conspiracy

Rangers fans aren’t asking for favours. We’re asking for basic competence and consistency, with VAR helping officials reach the correct call instead of muddying games and keeping the same old arguments alive.

I’m not interested in the conspiracy chat, and I don’t think most Rangers fans are either. The ask is pretty simple: get the big decisions right. If it’s a red card, give it. If it’s a goal, award it. If it’s no goal, fine. Just make it the correct call, regardless of whether it benefits Rangers or the opposition.

Consistency is the bare minimum

What’s driving folk round the bend is the feeling we’ve watched a run of weekends where the standard has dipped, not improved. And that’s meant to be the whole point of VAR. It’s there to tidy up the obvious mistakes and take the heat out of the most contentious moments. Instead, it often feels like we come away talking more about officials than football, and that’s never a good sign for the league.

Now, do some officials lack impartiality? Do people cheat? Only they can answer that, and I’m not going to sit here throwing around accusations. I wouldn’t question a man’s integrity on a hunch. But you can still say someone isn’t good enough at their job without turning it into something darker.

VAR operators have to be up to it

There are referees who are simply poor, and there are VAR officials who, in my opinion, shouldn’t be on the system at all. That’s not a personal attack. It’s a performance issue. When VAR steps in, it’s meant to add clarity, not confusion. If the people using it can’t apply the same threshold from match to match, you end up with a league where fans are guessing what the rules are week to week.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you can accept a decision going against you. What’s harder to accept is a decision that looks different depending on the badge, the venue, or the referee on the day. That’s where the frustration comes from, and that’s why certain officials, including VAR officials like Frank Connor, will always be scrutinised when the same patterns keep cropping up.

A missed chance to reset the whole system

The bigger point for me is the SFA had a real opportunity to draw a line in the sand and modernise how refereeing is run in Scotland. Bring in an experienced outside voice, take a fresh look at recruitment, training, communication, the lot. We’re told there were applicants from all over the world and they went with Willie Collum.

Was he the best candidate? I genuinely don’t know. None of us were in that process. But it feels like a chance was missed to revolutionise and future-proof the game, and we’re still stuck having the same arguments. For Scottish football to move forward, the SFA and Doncaster need overhauled, and refereeing standards need treated as a priority, not an afterthought.

Written by Pieter Huistra: 14 January 2026