Scottish Premiership branded VAR PUPPET show as former top whistler claims our refs taking mistakes to another level

Jeff Winter says misuse of VAR in Scottish football has turned Premiership refs into PUPPETS.

The former English top-flight whistler spoke out 18 months ago to predict an upturn in chaos and controversy as
technology was ushered in. That’s all come to pass but Winter, below, reckons the reality this season is far worse than he feared. The SFA referee department is in crisis as head man Crawford Allan stepped down and chief exec Ian Maxwell blasted a “blame culture” among clubs.

Motherwell became the latest club to hit out, saying they and their fans have had enough. And Winter insists managers, players, fans and REFS have a right to be angry at decisions ruining games. He believes officials are afraid to stick to their guns and apply common sense when alerted by the VAR booth. And that’s led to ‘ludicrous’ penalty decisions for minor and unintentional handball incidents determining the outcome of games.

Winter said: “Irrespective of what people think of match officials, if you referee in Scotland’s top flight you’ve got there on the strength of experience and confidence over a long period. Well, all that confidence and experience is going out the window.

“We all know, 99 times out of 100, what happens when the referee is called to the monitor. You imagine having Scotland’s top referee – or a very experienced VAR – calling you across. If the No.1 guy is saying: ‘You should have a look at this’, it’s putting immense pressure on you to change your mind. You’re either brave or foolish to disobey your senior colleagues or bosses in any job in any walk of life.

“The one that Scotland seems keen on is interpretation of the handball. Down south, they’ve got that wrong. In Scotland, they’ve taken it to another degree.

“I’ve