SCOTTISH referees’ chief Willie Collum admits the correct processes WEREN’T used in the decision to disallow a Marcus Fraser ‘goal’ against Hibs last weekend.
But he insists that the correct outcome, which saw the effort ruled out after a lengthy delay, WAS reached.
The revelation came in an incident packed VAR Review Show, which was aired on SkySports on Friday.
One of a number of high-profile refereeing controversies in the last month, two different lines emerged with the incident seeing Premier Sports pundit Michael Stewart claim on live TV: “There’s a mistake been made there and they’re trying to cover it up.”
The former Scotland star then said sorry for his comments after Hampden chiefs complained to Premier Sports.
But referees chief Collum explained the affair – and insisted he IS majorly “disappointed with the process used”.
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That’s because the lines initially used to determine offside didn’t take into account the placement of the ball at the time it was kicked.
Collum is adamant that the correct lines, when passed onto broadcasters after the game had finished, with the exact same frame and exact same kick point prove the ultimate decision was correct – but he’s far from happy.
He said: “Firstly we need to say we’re very disappointed with the process used.
“It starts well, finding the second last defender’s foot, making sure everything is checked.
“Fortunately they come to the right conclusion of offside but the lines they use to make that judgement are NOT accurate because the line should have been on the ball.
“Take into account the game has been stopped for two and a half minutes here, but for us though ten seconds more solves this problem because then what they can do is draw the line on the ball.
“I’m going to be really transparent here, this is an error, we’re not shying away from that error.
“But the right thing to do once we’ve identified that error was to correct those lines, with a defensive line on the ball and not on the second last defender, because if we leave it on the top image people will never know.
“We also showed the second line to broadcast but in my opinion as head of refereeing it was more important to do that in the confines of broadcast rather than do it on Sunday or Monday.
“You use the word lucky, I see this as a very big near miss and a big lesson for us.”
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