After a review revealed a rise in incorrect decisions, Crawford Allan, the head of refereeing for the Scottish FA, stated that VAR in the Scottish Premiership “works” but “can improve”; Clement responded, saying, “Transparency is good and if faults are made there is communication and we can learn lessons from that.”
Philippe Clement desires frequent conferences with referees in order to foster improved communication between officials and managers.
The Rangers manager was speaking the day after the Scottish Football Association’s VAR independent review panel found 13 decisions made during the second round of Scottish Premiership matches to be incorrect; this is a significant increase from the three errors that were recorded from the first round of games.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to St Johnstone, the Belgian expressed his optimism for the future while also expressing dissatisfaction with the perceived errors made by referees thus far this season.
Since taking over at Ibrox in October, Clement has received three yellow cards; the most recent came on Wednesday night during his team’s 3-1 victory over Ross County at Ibrox, bringing them level on points with leaders Celtic. Clement thinks that more conversation outside of the “tension” of games would benefit the game as a whole. Rabbi Matondo will miss this weekend’s match due to a minor muscle injury, according to the former manager of Genk, Club Brugge, and Monaco. “Transparency is good and if faults are made there is communication and we can learn lessons from that,” the manager stated. “If I make mistakes, it is the same for me.
“I believe that openness and communication are crucial to the game of football. I also believe that managers and referees should be able to communicate more frequently during the season—say, twice or three times—aside from games. We once or twice did it in Belgium, and because there is a different interaction within the games, it was incredibly interesting. Everyone is completely focused on their work, and there is a lot of tension all the time.
However, I believe it is critical to maintain open lines of communication and to occasionally view one another from a different perspective, and I believe this may be fascinating for Scottish football.
“Having constructive conversations about football, its regulations, and the events of the months leading up to it can be interesting. These conversations should be conducted in a way that prevents or minimises misunderstandings and allows for everyone to express their opinions, which will lead to a better final product. “And I mean both sides; referees may discuss game actions and possibly even manager behaviour, and managers can discuss things that happened in games that we didn’t understand because we have to explain to our players why decisions are made.
“In the previous game, I was also a little too erratic. I kicked away a water bottle and received a yellow card, which I later understood. If we can have open discussions, we as managers can learn, me in the first instance.”
