Ref chief Hugh Dallas reveals how PILOTS can help clear the air over VAR controversies
HUGH DALLAS has revealed he’s enlisted PILOTS to help referees with on-field VAR conversations.
Dallas is the Turkish Super Lig’s Head of Referee Education and, under new rules, they will release audio of dialogue between officials and VARs from this weekend’s matches.
He’s followed the lead of England’s PGMOL chief Howard Webb, who brought in British Airways pilots to address refs on the techniques of communication under pressure. Dallas has made a similar move with representatives from Turkish Airlines as the Turkish title face hots up.
Giants Galatasaray and Fenerbahce are separated by just two points at the top of the table with 13 games left.
Dallas — also a Uefa Referee Officer — said: “I was in Istanbul this week and we brought pilots in from Turkish Airlines to speak to the officials.
“Howard Webb did something similar with the guys in England and it was well received.
Read More VAR stories
“From this weekend, any key incidents will have the audio from the discussion released.
“That audio dialogue between the referees and the VARs has to be clear and spot-on.
“Because of the fervour that surrounds football in Turkiye, we know every comment is going to be forensically scrutinised.
“This is something that’s going to become more and more common. It already happens in La Liga in Spain as well.
Most read in Football
“The bottom line is that it will demonstrate transparency and doing so will underline that refs and VARs have nothing to hide.”
Dallas is also monitoring events regarding the possibility of blue cards and sin-bins being brought in to football.
But he’s insistent that coaches are going to be the ones who bear the biggest responsibility as the system is trialled.
And he’d like to see a change in mindset among participants as the game develops.
He said: “If a sin-bin comes in, the onus will be on managers and coaches to impress on their players that they can’t be in it.
“If a team loses a game because a player is in the sin-bin for ten minutes, that team’s president will be telling his coach to deal with it. They’ll want to have 11 players on the pitch for 90 minutes.
“If it’s going to improve respect towards referees and players’ behaviour, I’m all for it.
“We saw the end of the rugby game last weekend and the late try Scotland didn’t get against France.
“What happened at the end, though? The Scottish players shook the referee’s hand.
“So it’s going to require a change in culture.
“I would expect that the sin-bin idea will be trialled, possibly in Fifa tournaments at youth level, because there are obviously questions in terms of managing it.
“If you have someone sin-binned after 62 minutes then someone else sin-binned after 68, who’s timing the ten minutes?
“Is it the fourth official or is it someone else?
“What if someone’s blue-carded in the 89th minute? Does that revert back to a yellow card if the game ends on 90 minutes?
“There are a lot of things to iron out. IFAB will want to trial it, get the results back and fine-tune from there.
“Plans to bring in blue cards have been ridiculed but it would be there for communication purposes, to show the crowd and media just what a player has been disciplined for.
“I’m all for changes — as long they make life better for referees.
“But, over the past five years or so, referees have been asked to deal with a lot of changes.
“When I was part of IFAB, you’d get a rule change every three years.
“But now it seems to be constant. I heard Ange Postecoglou saying that some of the new rules are complicating things rather than improving them. He’s 100 per cent right.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“But IFAB won’t want to bring in anything that’s going to disrupt the game.”
Turkish chiefs will also use ten foreign referee observers — including Willie Young and England’s Mike Riley — from this weekend to evaluate and rank domestic officials in league matches.
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page