BOBBY Madden has come up with the prefect way to explain the life of a Scottish football referee.

Death by clip. I wish I’d come up with that one.

Madden’s problem is that he’s a human being and thus capable of making a mistake; a burden no football fan has to carry with them. Then this error is poked, probed and investigated by amateur forensic scientists in a way the JFK murder wasn’t.

And in the end, every time, the findings are that the ref is a dud and biased. Excellent stuff.

Madden is a superb referee and a good guy as well. He deserves our backing, not the appalling innuendo.

Oh, and there are new rules being brought in regarding all sorts of aspects, hand-ball for example, so there is more for the men in the middle to deal with.

They include tightened-up rules around hand-ball that now mean anyone using an arm in the process of scoring or setting up a goal will be penalised. Defenders have also been told they will find themselves in trouble if their arms extend beyond a “natural silhouette” while handling the ball – even if the contact is accidental.

No wonder Madden and his fellow refs want VAR brought in. Personally, I don’t like it, but listening to the man at Hampden yesterday, even this cynic could see where he was

coming from.

Madden said: “There is nothing worse than when you make a

decision and the crowd is up and giving you their comments in their own special way.

“That level of scrutiny we are under – and we will be under this season – it will add a little bit of noise but as long as we are consistent in our application and we fully understand the new interpretation(s) then that short period of teething problems should dissipate quite quickly.

“We don’t referee with still images. We get one view on the field of play and then you see still images or

whatever, but you are going to get people using comparisons ‘this happened in a match 10 years ago, and this is different’, that’s the way of the world now and with social media.

“I’m also refereeing to death by clip as being I’m making looking at 100-150 clips of handball to make sure we are consistent but even then there still will be a difference in

interpretation and that’s almost impossible to eradicate that. All we can do is go through the clips and by understanding all the new criteria is to hopefully have a more consistent application.”

Things happen in football that we all miss, even those on the park, but if a referee is looking one way, and a player hits someone behind the ref’s back, it is still the bloke with the earpiece who gets the blame.

Madden said: “That happened to me last year. People say ‘you are looking at something clearly’ but unfortunately looking at something ‘clearly’ from 20 or 30 yards in an environment like we have at Hampden, and then sitting watching on television…you don’t have zoom, the focus, the angle.

“Even though a lot of the cases that were raised by the compliance officer were ‘did you see it in its entirety?’ Well yes, but I didn’t see it as it can be seen on the video. That’s unfortunately where football is now,

everything is a still image or by clip or by tv and with so many mediums to review things and so many people with different angles. You have one view on the pitch and without the support of VAR that one look is all you get.”

Scotland is a wonderful country. Scottish football is great. Alas, as fine a nation as we are, something happens to far too many of us lose all sense of perspective when a 50/50 decision at a games goes against our team.

Our referees are accused of all sorts, mostly wrongly, by people who could never do the job of Madden and his colleagues.

Madden said: “Scottish football has a lot of scrutiny. Football is the number one sport and there is a lot of passion. The product is improving with bigger attendances, more TV coverage.

“But we are no more passionate than countries like Turkey or Greece, who are going to introduce it. Anything that can take that little bit of stress away is going to improve the referee performances.”

Madden has used VAR, only this summer, and he liked what he experienced.

Even those of us not convinced, that our best referee liked the backing of VAR, the way it helped make us sure, as sure as football can be, that the right decision has been made.

Madden said: “The under-21 championships in Italy was the first time I’d used it.

“My opening match, Croatia v Romania, six minutes in. The ball’s deflected out for a corner-kick and I was working with two English VARs.

“The message is ‘only call me for a review if it’s absolutely clear and I’m going to overturn it’. We delay the re-start and it takes over two minutes to invite me to have an on-field review of what was a handball offence.

“It was on the blind side of me so I didn’t see it, so that’s a missed incident. With the new interpretation, the hand’s away from the body and even though the distance is short, it’s a penalty kick and there was no dissent on the field.

“So the year’s training showing me how to sign a rectangle really paid off! Later in the game there was a tight offside decision but that was a matter of fact and that’s where VAR is best –for these tight offside decisions.”

Madden believes there will be a lot more penalties at the start of next season because of the changes in the hand-ball laws.

So, that will be fun.

Madden said: “The changes have been brought in to try to deliver consistency and make it clearer for referees, which I believe they do.

“Something like hand-ball has caused controversy for years both in domestic and European competitions.

“There have been various attempts to try and improve the interpretation of handball but I think they have clear directions and criteria in place now so that it’s easier for the referees to understand and apply that and also for players, managers and the paying public to get a grip on.

“It’s now very clear for us that if you enlarge your body, if your hands are in an unnatural position, if you score a goal or launch an attacking phase with a hand it will be punishable.

“Will we give more penalties this season because of the new instructions? I believe so.

“There is a real British mentality about what constitutes a hand-ball but in European football, it’s expected fouls will be awarded more often when the ball does hit the hand so I believe the criteria introduced this season means more will be punishable here in Scotland.

“There will be that period where it’s a new interpretation and there will always be controversy but as long as it’s applied consistently – which the new interpretation allows –

then people will get to understand what is and what isn’t a handball offence.”

The clubs have a list of all the 40 changes, some bigger than others, which FIFA have implemented.

We will never know how many players have poured through them but my guess is that not all of them have done this. This is one of the major problems. Too few of any of us know all the rules. But that doesn’t stop us shouting foul when, erm, a foul isn’t given. VAR, maybe, would help to change this.

Madden said: “Anyone who watched the Women’s World Cup would accept there was a lot more VAR interventions and interruptions than they would want to see.

“People want to see the clear mistakes rectified. But if something is open for debate then why would we want to review that? If two people can’t agree on a decision then it’s not a clear mistake.”