Motherwell head coach Stuart Kettlewell wants more clarity on the decisions Scottish referees make after being left in the dark following a double VAR blow against Aberdeen last time out.
The Steelmen had an equalising goal ruled out for apparent handball in the build up then were denied a penalty when the ball looked to have hit Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie's arm inside the box during second half stoppage time.
The North Lanarkshire club issued a strong statement in the wake of their 1-0 defeat against the Dons, but have been given the silent treatment by the Scottish FA. The explanation Motherwell received was that Theo Bair’s handball was deemed deliberate while the others - including a goal Ross County received a few weeks prior - were not.
However, Kettlewell's employers made it clear that inconsistency over decisions, lengthy VAR interventions and lack of clarity over decisions were having a negative impact on supporters enjoyment and driving them away from the stands.
He said: “There will be a lot of supporters that still wonder why one or two decisions were given.
“I think people believe we do that as a football club just to be argumentative and it’s just this quest against match officials. It’s really not.
“We thought long and hard about our actions and it was a football club decision. We felt the statement was measured and transparent and also, it related to the rules of the game.
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“There was initial contact (with the SFA) before our statement but there’s not been any further contact off the back of our statement.
“The one thing I will stress, that’s one slice of the cake. I have been shot at that I am just crying about a couple of decisions against Aberdeen. I’m not, I am putting in one element from ourselves. If you go across every other team in the top flight, they will give you similar examples.
“I believe there has to be some form of clarity in terms of the decisions that are made because I still don’t have an explanation that justifies why Lennon Miller’s goal was chalked off.
“I’m still a little bit in the dark in terms of the goal we concede against Ross County and the goal we scored against Aberdeen, and how there’s a different outcome.
"There still in my mind has not been any clarity. But I genuinely, genuinely think there is a bigger picture here.
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“I have said all along the clubs have to come together. There’s an obvious grievance here in how, not so much with VAR, but how some of the rules have been implemented, sometimes what we are seeing, sometimes how many times we are looking at it and checking it, sometimes the communication, not just between officials and clubs but between themselves.
“There is a big thing here. The football clubs, the referees’ association and the SFA, everybody, in my opinion, must look at this and realise there is an obvious issue and the only way to move forward, we have to come together, whether it’s dropping the ego and making sure that we are listening to others. That’s the only way we can move things forward.
“These conversations must pack a punch and bring about some form of change otherwise we will be sitting here at the same time this year having the same sort of chat.”
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