Martin O’Neill has revealed details of a recent meeting with Willie Collum and Martin Atkinson as Scottish football continues to wrestle with VAR.
O’Neill said the meeting was positive and praised the willingness of Collum and Atkinson to have open conversations.
He said: (The Herald), “We had a meeting with the referees. It was really fine.
“I think they’re very open. They want to try. Willie’s really trying to have a go. Martin Atkinson, who I knew from my past down in England, I think they want open discussions with us.
“We’ve all made plenty of mistakes. It was trying to clear up a couple of things from VAR.”
One issue raised was the number of cameras available in Scottish football compared to the English Premier League.
O’Neill accepts there are limits to what can be done without spending significantly more money.
He said: “If we haven’t got the number of cameras that the Premier League have, there’s not much you can do about it. To get this extra stuff in, they’re talking about £1.5million per season, which just doesn’t seem feasible.
“It’s a shame. But it is what it is. It would be lovely if you could do it.”
O’Neill also admitted VAR has not solved as many problems as he initially expected.
When the technology was first introduced, he thought it would make certain decisions much clearer, particularly inside the penalty area.
He said: “I really thought it would solve problems, the one thing I was certain about was there would be more penalties because you see people holding onto players, the length of time, and VAR is coming back, the referee can only be looking at one thing unless he’s got phenomenal peripheral vision, and therefore VAR is saying two boys have been holding each other.
“So I thought there’d be plenty of penalties, and VAR would sort it out, but eight years later, we’re still talking about it.”
That uncertainty remains for O’Neill, who also pointed to the impact VAR has had on the simple act of celebrating a goal.
“I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. All I do know is it’s very difficult to celebrate what you think is a goal for you, because you’re waiting around to see if something has happened.
“That was always going to be the case, so VAR would have made you lose something in that aspect. But if it meant that a decision was right and somebody was clearly offside, then VAR should do its job.”
Despite his reservations, O’Neill was positive about the meeting itself.
“Overall, it was a good conversation we had. It was a mixture of managers, coaches and assistants who were there. Derek [McInnes] didn’t come. He sent his assistant.”
With VAR still a regular source of debate in Scotland, O’Neill appears to appreciate the fact Collum and Atkinson are at least willing to sit down with clubs and explain how the system is being operated.
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Martin O’Neill will have no concerns about VAR today as Celtic were not far enough up the park for VAR to come into play .
A diabolical performance by every player of with a soft defence, powder puff midfield and non existent strikers.
McGregor badly needs replaced.