Scottish FA head of refereeing Willie Collum has told Sky Sports he is confident the officials will not be the story of the new season. The former category one referee, who is preparing for his second season in the post, has spent the summer visiting all 12 Scottish Premiership clubs as well as many in the lower leagues of the SPFL.
Collums aim when he replaced Crawford Allan in July 2024 was to improve the operation and delivery of VAR and help alleviate the unsustainable burden on officials. Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen and more live on opening weekendIn full: Scottish Premiership 2025/26 fixturesNot got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺Eighty per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky SportsHe introduced a VAR review show last season to give more transparency and admitted mistakes were made, but he believes there has been real progress.
I think everybody would agree theres always going to be exceptions, but particularly in handball we made good ground, the 46-year-old told Sky Sports News. I said a year ago at this time we would come to a more football understanding of handball and I think theres been less controversial handballs given.
You will still get outliers, thatll happen. Theyll happen again this season and we need to deal with them as we go, but we definitely want a more consistent approach. We also want to avoid any of the errors which are difficult to explain.
Everybody understands subjective decisions and difficult decisions. What we want to avoid is decisions where when everybodys looking at it, they dont understand why weve reached that decision. Collum, who was the last Scottish referee to officiate at a major finals at Euro 2016, insists officials are open to learning from others when it comes to implementing the laws of the game.
Get Sky Sports on WhatsApp | Download the Sky Sports appTransfer Centre LIVE! | Paper TalkWere in a good place. We feel on the same page with the clubs as well, which is really, really important and Im confident, he added when questioned on his officials not being the story of the new season.
Were pretty much 99 per cent there with the clubs and decisions. The decisions that maybe were not on the same page, weve listened to our stakeholders, weve listened to the clubs, weve listened to the coaches.
I think its really, really important to have good relationships with an open door policy to engage with the clubs, with the players. Also, to learn from them. I think thats important, that we need to be open to learning from other people as well.
Were really pushing hard the captain-referee approach domestically as well, so we want to see these good relationships on the pitch. I feel were in a good place in terms of relationship, but its so important because we need to help each other.
The clubs, the coaches, the players, they need us as well to explain things and we need them to come and support us. Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season From next season, Sky Sports Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports
