NafisaFlying out with the Scotland squad to the United States on Sunday for a first World Cup in 28 years is what Ian Maxwell has correctly described as an enjoyable part of the job.
Spending an hour on the phone with a senior police official 24 hours after a controversial late penalty decision resulted in a referee’s home address being leaked online is not quite as pleasant an experience.
It represents the darker aspect of the Scottish Football Association chief executive’s responsibilities.
Maxwell has described the reaction to John Beaton’s decision to award a penalty to Celtic following a VAR review as “disgusting”. It’s notable he used the exact same word Derek McInnes, the Hearts manager, had chosen in reference to the call during the emotional moments after the title race swung heavily in Celtic’s favour on the penultimate weekend of the league season.
Hearts now needed to earn a result on the final day at Celtic Park while the hosts had the reassurance of knowing a victory would crown them champions once again. That fixture took place amid a heated atmosphere following fierce debate about the legitimacy of the penalty awarded six minutes into stoppage time at Fir Park.
The reaction led to the personal safety of Beaton and his family being compromised, forcing Maxwell to notify police about the potential danger facing one of Scotland’s top referees. The SFA also issued a statement, describing the development as “a consequence of a hysterical media narrative, fuelled by irresponsible knee-jerk post-match media interviews, commentary and official social media posts”.
Maxwell has stressed it is the SFA’s duty to stand behind such a strong statement.
“It was disgusting,” he said, when asked to reflect on the entire episode after the SFA agm on Thursday. “Honestly, I was absolutely raging. It is just not right, it is fundamentally not right. If anyone has played any sort of part….everyone has to look at every bit that makes that happen, every bit of media commentary, whether it is a statement from a club or a manager talking after a game or a player, there are a lot of bits that escalate to the point that someone says ‘I am going to stick a referee’s details online’. How anyone thinks that is acceptable is an absolute disgrace.”
“All we do is lambast referees from one day to the next,” he added. “It never stops.
“From the first day of the season to the last, all they do is get criticised.
“I can’t understand why anyone thinks that will make them go on to the pitch in a positive, sound, free frame of mind to make good decisions.
“VAR is working. It’s eradicating errors. But unfortunately we have a culture within Scottish football that just wants to focus on the negative and over-analyse and forensically analyse every decision that’s ever made.
“It doesn’t even need to be wrong. It just needs to be a decision you don’t like because it doesn’t suit your team. It’s about the colour of shirt your team is wearing.”
The chief executive was direct when it was put to him that a growing number want VAR scrapped. “It won’t happen,” he said. “Why would it happen? Everyone gets starry-eyed about the pre-VAR days. Why would we want to go back to a situation where we get more decisions wrong?
“It makes no sense. You can argue whether it is good or bad, or this one was right and this one was wrong, (but) the stats we have stack up against everyone in Europe in terms of the number of decisions we are getting right.”
Nafisa
