The scrap heap By Donald C Stewart

Date: 14th August 2026

The scrap heap

By Donald C Stewart

A sketchy and humorous look at the outpourings of the great, the good and the not so good of Scottish fitba’ by Donald C Stewart. Readers are warned that if they take this seriously then therapy is available – just let us know where you find it so we can pass it on to others…

 

Some people think environmental activists are going to be called in soon to inspect the Scottish Football Association scrap heap.

The key match incident panel is the next thing to be placed upon it. It must be sitting rather comfortably on top of report after report or specialist investigation after investigation or think tank that has been placed upon the Scottish Football Association scrap heap over the years.

The number of times that initiatives have been put up, then changed or altered and scrap heaped as mentioned in dispatches is increasing in the footballing world. Well, sporting integrity, European Super Leagues, Gianni Infantino…

The Key Match Incident Panel brought three people together to provide transparency to criticism levelled at officials when they get things wrong. Now, to be fair, as Nutmeg in a recent interview with a former Grade 1 referee pointed out bias is in the eyes of the beholder and not in the heart of the official when they make decisions.

This came about because Craig McLeish at St Mirren suggested that a recent refereed decision in a League Cup game, against Dunfermline Athletic, where a legitimate goal was rolled offside but there was no VAR to intervene, was due to the potential bias of the referee who had previously played for the Pars.

Many in the Scottish game suggest that referees are always going to give decisions towards teams that they favour.

That favour could be because they grew up supporting them. It is pointed out in the Nutmeg article, referees are drawn generally from Glasgow, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire rather than elsewhere in the country. It would be very difficult coming from those three hotbeds of old firm supporters’ clubs not to be somebody who had an affinity with either. If like in England, you decided not to have officials in charge or running the line for any team which they grew up supporting or the rivals of that particular team, then many officials would never get to be involved in a cup final.

In fact, we would have struggle to have enough to referee any game at all. We could end up, as many favour, with foreign officials coming across to referee the game.

It does kind of put paid to the idea of former footballers refereeing. There are many in the pundit’s chair struggling to keep abreast of the rules of the game since they retired.

One of the things that I think has been very good is to have a former referee on hand on a Saturday afternoon in Sportsound so if there is anything controversial you can get an immediate input from a referee perspective. I really liked it during the World Cup.

So aside from prejudiced opinions that should be put on the scrap heap, the Scottish Football Association have decided to fling one of their initiatives on it quite early so, if it’s not going to work why keep it?

What’s next? How about VAR. Although 90 odd percent of decisions are now more accurate, there are many feelings of disquiet as to why we are still holding on to something which causes more debate than it solves.

However, I’ve got a funny feeling that the Scottish Football Association scrap heap is only available for people who are part of the Scottish Football Association.

Maybe the summit on the 4th of September will prove me wrong.

---

Posted in: Fan's Blog, Latest News

Tags: oor Donald, Scottish football, SFA, SPFL