SFA Introduce Another New Officiating Initiative

The SFA have this afternoon announced another brand-new officiating initiative.

The ‘Key Match Incident Review Panel’ will replace last season’s ‘Independent VAR Review Panel’ and meet weekly.

The five-person panel will examine major on-field decisions and VAR interventions, determining whether they were right or wrong before publishing the results on the Scottish FA’s website.

Members of the panel will vote on whether officials got contentious decisions correct while also devising each into a difficulty rating.

Decisions that officials should easily get right are given a rating of one, while ones that even elite referees could struggle with will be given a five.

This latest initiative comes as the SFA continues to seek to improve clarity over controversial calls.

Last week, the VAR Review Show was launched. Each month, Willie Collum will now sit down to discuss contentious decisions.

In the first edition of the show, Collum explained how Celtic should have had a penalty on Flag Day against Kilmarnock.

In fairness to the new Head of Referees, he is doing his best to improve communication between officials, clubs, and supporters surrounding decisions that are difficult to call.

This latest initiative is more frequent than the VAR Review YouTube show and will give fans more regular updates on how accurate referees are.