NorthernLights Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Quote Aberdeen FC feel compelled to address supporters following Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Livingston in West Lothian, when Bojan Miovski’s late goal was disallowed following an intervention from the Video Assistant Referee. AFC have deliberately retained a relative public silence throughout VAR’s lifespan in Scotland, despite some challenging situations both last season and this. We have instead chosen, for the most part, to air grievances around specific decisions, or make any suggested improvements, privately. However, that position is no longer tenable following a meeting earlier this week with the Scottish FA, where the club was provided an opportunity to see and hear the transcripts relating to Saturday’s disallowed goal in the Scottish Premiership match versus Livingston. The outcome of which was: The Hawkeye system failed in the lead up to Bojan Miovski’s 92nd minute goal at the Tony Macaroni Arena, so the Video Assistant Referees (VARs) were unable to rely on any reliable calibrated lines to determine, with the normal degree of certainty, whether Angus MacDonald was offside or otherwise. The Scottish FA have confirmed to us that they have already launched an investigation into why this failure happened and their officials put into a difficult position. The VARs then used a freeze frame to determine whether they thought Angus MacDonald was in an offside position when the free kick was taken by Leighton Clarkson. The ability for the VARs to do this is contained within the VAR protocols. The Scottish FA accepted there is no conceivable way the VAR could tell definitively the deepest position of Livingston midfielder Daniel McKay’s body, because from the only angle available – the 18-yard box camera on the Main Stand side – the lower half of McKay’s body is completely obscured from view, blocked by other players. Even if his full body was visible, it’s impossible to determine who was closest to the goal line with no on-pitch ‘markers’. Therefore, it was acknowledged by all in attendance at the meeting that the VARs had to effectively guess on what that position might have been based on the limited information available to them, and that was the basis on which to overrule the on-field call of the assistant referee, who did not raise his flag. It is our strong belief that in such an instance, and for the integrity of the game, the match officials should stick with their original on-field decision without the strength of evidence to overturn that and essentially re-referee the passage of play. This course of action was chosen ahead of asking the referee, himself, to look at the freeze frame and make a determination, which is permitted under the protocols when it’s a matter of opinion rather than factual, or more appropriately, in absence of a definitive outcome from the camera, sticking with the on-field decision, and giving the benefit of the doubt. What this situation demonstrates, in our opinion, is that the version of VAR that Scottish football has, or more accurately, can afford, is not suitable for the purpose in which it is intended. It perfectly highlights the limitations in the technology, the inappropriate implementation, the consistency of decision-making, and the negative impact on the overall experience for the match-going supporter. This is, of course, not an issue that we believe is in any way exclusive to Aberdeen FC. We are not being partisan because we believe a decision, or at least a process, has not been at all effective at the weekend. We acknowledge there have been occasions where we ourselves have been fortunate to have benefitted from some of the observations and limitations raised. The Scottish FA, with the help of the SPFL (via the Competitions Working Group), have an on-going review of the use of Video Assistant Referees within Scottish football. Aberdeen FC is committed to playing an active role in those discussions and will work with all stakeholders to try and improve the output because, at the moment, we do not believe VARs presence is enhancing the game in this country. https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/04/10/club-statement-video-assistant-referees/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJF Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 5 minutes ago, NorthernLights said: https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/04/10/club-statement-video-assistant-referees/ Quite a well balanced statement that which lays bare quite a lot of the issue we face with VAR. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Manhattan Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 5 minutes ago, NorthernLights said: https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/04/10/club-statement-video-assistant-referees/ You'd have more respect for the SFA if they said they'd just flipped a coin! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 On 07/04/2024 at 20:04, rainbowrising said: Serious question - do people honestly think their club at boardroom level is going to reply to an email saying, "Aye, we totally agree, we are dumping it"? You will get corporate-speak. So, "shaping the future" is what you will get. Chase, all you want. The Premiership has three fan-owned clubs (Hearts, Motherwell and St Mirren) and at least one more with a supporters trust representative on the board (Killie), so yes I would imagine that these clubs are going to take the opinions of their fans seriously. Not every club is owned by corporate types who are purely using them to make a quick buck. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Aberdeen. A great bunch of lads. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) I doubt any VAR has any “reliable calibration”. Get it in the fucking bin along with each and every “well actually” VAR nonce supporting it. Edited April 10 by Melanius Mullarkey 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 The calibration of the system is absolutely fine when it works, that is the least of the problems we have with VAR. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 27 minutes ago, NorthernLights said: https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/04/10/club-statement-video-assistant-referees/ The big issue here is VAR overturning an on-field decision based on guesswork. That should never happen. At the very least, as mentioned in the statement, the referee should have been called to the monitor because without the lines it becomes a subjective decision as to whether a player "appears" offside or not (and is the basis of every offside decision made without VAR). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 10 minutes ago, craigkillie said: The calibration of the system is absolutely fine when it works, that is the least of the problems we have with VAR. To the level of precision of a few mm? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneteaminglasgow Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 On 18/03/2024 at 19:05, Ad Lib said: Drop TJF an email and we can bring it up at our next board meeting (next week). Personally I think VAR needs to get in the fucking bin, but I can't speak for anyone else on this (yet)! Did this ever happen? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Well in, Dandies. Hopefully the first of the clubs to say similar. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginaro Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) Didn't realise this occurred as I didn't bother watching the nil-nil on Sportscene! Here's the freeze frame - is Livingston 11 at the top is playing the Aberdeen player at the bottom onside? Missing from the statement is whether the SFA have since checked the offside using the footage available and produced the lines because it would be useful to see how close it was. Also: "What this situation demonstrates, in our opinion, is that the version of VAR that Scottish football has, or more accurately, can afford, is not suitable for the purpose in which it is intended." - it's the same offside system as other leagues like England use (with fewer calibrated cameras though to help avoid obstructed body parts) and any system could fail to work at some point. This is just the VARs deciding not to just go with the on-field decision in a close offside rather than a "version of VAR" thing... Edited April 10 by Ginaro 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lubo_blaha Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Not only has the system failed, they’ve also overruled the referee’s on field decision based on a guess, with the deepest defender obscured. They didn’t even call the referee over to look at it himself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingswellsRed Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Urgently needs binned. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dezz Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Good statement from the Dandies. Mental that they’ve overruled an onfield decision with a guess. Is that now Motherwell and Aberdeen that have released statements saying it’s essentially not fit for purpose. Am I forgetting any others? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ad Lib Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 44 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said: Did this ever happen? I didn't get an email! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoose Rice Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 VAR has been used effectively a lot more than it's been fucked up. It's the officials more than anything that are incompetent. -4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons_1988 Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 statement is good but I’d actually say it’s the wrong incident to call for VAR to be removed. If you accept that technology has glitches like the Hawkeye system failing then you’d think it would be easy enough to have a strict protocol saying if the system isn’t working, don’t fucking guess and then lie about why you haven’t released the evidence of the decision. it isn’t something that actually requires the removal of VAR. The removal of VAR is a broader point about the impact on the game and the problems of which it solves none of. That decision on Saturday at livi took a good 5 minutes after celebrating what seemed like a winning goal. And for what? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velo army Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 31 minutes ago, Ad Lib said: I didn't get an email! Mea Culpa. I didn't pay attention to the "next week" bit and put it on the back burner (then forgot about it). Fucked it. When's the next meeting? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyle Lanley Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Well done Aberdeen. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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