Callum Slattery handed retrospective ban by SFA Compliance officer

Callum Slattery has been handed a four match ban, with two matches suspended, for simulation which caused St Mirren's Richard King to be sent off during Motherwell's 5-0 demolition of the Buddies.

In the latest episode of Scottish refereeing, we now find ourselves with a guest appearance of the compliance officer.

It is worth prefacing this article with that Richard King obviously should not have been sent off, and Slattery should've been yellow carded on the night for the simulation.

However, ultimately, a refereeing team consisting of the primary referee, two linesmen, a fourth official, a VAR referee and an assistant VAR referee have all came to the conclusion, on the night, that it was a red card offence. The fees these men received to referee the game will all have been significant, and combined with the cost of VAR itself, means an extraordinary amount of money have went into a fundamentally wrong decision - and yet, this seems to have gone under the radar.

The quality and positioning of the VAR cameras is also alarming. Motherwell were denied a last minute penalty at Ibrox, because the VAR cameras couldn't see the foul. Dundee United's red card at Fir Park used a camera from the opposite end of the pitch, as did Motherwell's red card in Aberdeen. On the STV Football podcast, Falkirk captain Coll Donaldson said that the tactical cameras at Falkirk have also shown that sometimes an offside/onside decision has been incorrectly given.

VAR, as a concept, is probably a net-positive in football. Scottish VAR, with its incompetent referees and mystifing angles, is a net-negative. For every decision it gets correct, there appears to be three scandals afterwards.

On the actual decision itself, it is also the first retrospective action handed out in a while. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but it is extremely suspect that this decision was made amidst a time of extreme scrutiny of referees in Scotland. Why wasn't this panel convened after it happened? The optimist in me says it is just ineptitude, bureaucratic delays causing a decision to be made weeks after the incident in question. The pessimist tells me it was an opportune moment for a PR victory amidst intense negative publicity.

There is also no proportionality to the offence. Simulation is treated as a caution, it is only a yellow card. It then beggars belief that the compliance officer and their obedient panel have then sought it fit to hand a four game ban with two suspended, for something that is a simple yellow card offence.

The consistency is damning too. Will Keanu Baccus get a retrospective ban for his dive against Dundee United? Will Oxlaide-Chamberlain be given a retrospective red card for his tackle on Elijah Just? Will we be allowed to bring Apostolos back from his loan to take a penalty into Jack Butland at the Broomloan stand? Will Hearts be allowed a penalty at Kilmarnock too?

Football may just be a game, but the consequences arising from refereeing ineptitudes are real. Jobs and livelihoods rely on them, and they are constantly put aside whilst Column mumbles and grumbles on a pre-recorded monthly YouTube video with little interrogation or recompense offered to the people his and his phonies' ineptitude harm. In Scotland's greatest season in decades, with a new brand of football being shown, a surprise title challenge from Hearts, with the two giants showing vulnerabilities, and even at a national level with ongoing success, once again our attention is diverted to those who constantly make Scottish football about themselves.

Ultimately, it is but another episode in a disappointing saga of referees plaguing the game; and it once again points to the untenability of those who dictate the sport that we are ever so rapidly falling out of love with.

Motherwell's statement:

This suspension is related to the red card incident involving Richard King against St Mirren back in February. The club was informed earlier in the month that Slattery had been issued with a notice of complaint from the Compliance Officer and that the midfielder would be issued with a match suspension, the length of which would be decided by a panel.

On the night, the fourth official communicated to the match referee about the off-the-ball incident, to which a red card was shown to King. Following a VAR review, the decision was upheld due to the inconclusive evidence from the cameras, which couldn’t confirm the level of contact with Slattery’s face due to poor quality.

Despite the correct protocol being followed on the night, a third layer of refereeing has now been implemented, and despite using the same poor-quality camera angles, the panel has imposed a four-game ban for our player, two of which he is to serve in the next two matches with the other two suspended.

The club attended the hearing with clear evidence showing that the camera angles from the match in Paisley couldn’t provide anyone with conclusive footage on the amount of contact to Slattery’s face.

This is the first incident in Scottish football where a player has received a match suspension via retrospective action for inappropriate behaviour, and we question why this incident meets the criteria, yet countless others don’t.

All clubs have witnessed similar incidents in games which haven’t resulted in retrospective bans; therefore, we will watch and expect consistency going forward so that Callum isn’t treated differently to others. The club will be making no further comment at this time.