Rangers have written to the SFA raising serious concerns about the level of VAR decision-making in the Premier Sports Cup final.
The governing body should respond directly by demanding to know what measures the Ibrox club intend to take to prevent Philippe Clement losing to Celtic on January 2. How they propose to prevent Jack Butland from committing absurd penalties against St Mirren. Or clarify why Dujon Sterling lost the ball for the Saints winner in the third minute of added time.
Soccer is a game plagued by human errors. One where clubs who don't want to think too much about their own failures rarely miss the opportunity to point out VAR failures to get angry fans off their backs.
While Rangers should probably resolve their issues with the governing body privately, their latest Christmas statement raises an uncomfortable question for football authorities in Scotland and elsewhere.
When men paid to spot clear and obvious mistakes make their own clear and obvious mistake, how should they be punished?
Nobody with half a brain In fact He thinks officials make wrong decisions on purpose. That being said, Rangers fans still Alan Muir, Frank Connor and the ignored Andrew Dallas march through the streets, handcuffed and wearing crowns of thorns.
Rangers wrote to SFA raising serious concerns about VAR decision-making standard
The penalty that the VAR should have called after Liam Scales took off Vaclav Cerny's shirt
Willie Collum admitted Hampden's sentence review was 'unacceptable'
While public shaming might not improve the standard of decision-making, it would make fans feel a little better about a Hampden penalty review that refereeing boss Willie Collum called “unacceptable”.
In the quest for “accountability,” errant referees were excluded from the game rotation for one or two games, at most. And the Ibrox club does not believe that is enough.
The problem here is that no one has really sat down to consider what punishment wanted to be enough. Or what accountability really means, in this context.
When a central defender receives a red card for robbing a team of a clear scoring opportunity, he receives an automatic one-match ban. Punishing referees more severely for having the same impact on a game seems overly harsh.
Nobody In fact Of course, he doesn't know how they are punished. And that's a big part of the problem.
When players make a mistake, everyone knows what suspension they will face.
An infraction gets them a yellow card and a warning. Two, or one serious mistake, is a red card and an automatic one-match suspension. If you accumulate too many yellow or red cards, you will face a prolonged period in the stands.
Referees could tell you that behind closed doors, the assessment, training and beatings they take are worse than Fergie's hairdryer. To the outside world, this seems like a slap on the wrist and back to work the next day.
Alan Muir made a major mistake in the Motherwell-Celtic match but took control of the VAR for the final
Cup Final VAR assistant Frank Connor to run the line in Celtic-St Johnstone match
Andrew Dallas was also part of the VAR team for the Celtic-Rangers clash at Hampden
Just as a club manager can't flay his own player in public, Willie Collum won't make things better if he gets into the habit of throwing a small group of elite officials under a bus.
Likewise, you won't raise standards much if you turn a blind eye to your incompetence. The trick here is to make the punishment fit the crime and let the clubs see what is happening.
Alan Muir made a major mistake in a Motherwell-Celtic match earlier this season when he failed to score a penalty for Daizen Maeda. Far from being defeated, he was put in control of the VAR booth in the first major cup final of the season.
Another full-time VAR official, Greg Aitken, missed three penalties in nine minutes in the match between Ross County and St Mirren. His punishment for that is a ring seat at Clydesdale House for Sunday's match between Dundee United and Aberdeen.
Meanwhile, Muir is back with his finger on the red button for St Mirren v Dundee, while VAR assistant Connor will lead the line on Celtic v St Johnstone.
According to their statement, the Rangers have a problem with Connor returning to the line in “a game involving the club that benefited from the mistake” at Hampden.
Unless they're implying that bias somehow influenced his decision (a serious allegation), where he plies his trade this weekend is irrelevant.
The only question anyone should ask is whether the Hampden Three have In fact Did he serve his sentence? And if the SFA believe the punishment is proportionate and fair, they should not hesitate to write directly to Rangers urging them to get their own house in order before lecturing anyone else on governance.
Dons still recovering from Rocky's telltale hit
It barely seems like five minutes since David Gray was a dead man and Jimmy Thelin the cock of the north.
Late last month, ten-man Hibs suffered an inept 4-1 defeat at Dundee to make it one win in 13 league games.
That same day, Aberdeen suffered their first defeat in 21 matches when they were defeated at St Mirren. Eight points clear of second-place Rangers, there was no cause for panic.
The Dons should have been back on a winning pace at Easter Road three days later. Ester Sokler's goal to make it 3-2 in the 95th minute should have put the final nail in Gray's coffin. When Rocky Bushiri came through with an improbable last-gasp leveller, Hibs had their sliding doors moment.
Thelin and his Dons players appear shaken after 4-0 defeat at Kilmarnock
Hibs celebrate victory at Tynecastle after turning their season around
They have won four of five since then, their only defeat coming against Celtic, where they raised some serious questions. From the bottom, they have risen to seventh place, boosted by figures such as Nicky Cadden who emerged as solid seven out of ten performers. Today, no one is obsessed with Gray's future.
For Aberdeen, Bushiri's late goal at Easter Road had the opposite effect. He killed them.
In the five games since then, Thelin's team has lost three and drawn two. Any pretense of challenging the title has disappeared. An abysmal 4-0 rout at Kilmarnock was their worst performance of the season and Rangers have returned to second place, where they will surely remain.
The Dons have fallen off a cliff, while Hibs have pulled themselves back from the brink with a tremendous victory over arch-rivals Hearts.
Who saw that coming four weeks ago?
Budge doesn't need this hassle of booing.
The Edinburgh derby was a day to forget for some Heart fans.
Allegations of racial abuse towards Hibs player Jordan Obita are the subject of a police investigation.
Meanwhile, the continued personal abuse directed at majority shareholder Ann Budge is an act of monstrous ingratitude.
Ann Budge has been unfairly booed by Hearts fans with short memories
The booers seem to forget that without Budge's intervention they wouldn't have a club to support, let alone an owner to boo.
Once the loan is paid off, there is no reason for a 76 year old woman to put up with this nonsense. She doesn't need the hassle.
Come the January window, a new data partnership with Brighton owner Tony Bloom's Jamestown Analytics will come into effect.
And, if he is the game-changer Hearts hope he will be, Budge will sail into the sunset with the legacy his contribution deserves.