SFA appoint former Premier League referee as new VAR manager to support Willie Collum

The SFA have appointed Martin Atkinson as the new VAR manager to support the head of refereeing Willie Collum.

The former Premier League referee will replace his former Professional Game Match Officials Limited colleague Jon Moss who held the role for a short spell before departing for a chief refereeing post in Australia. Atkinson will now leave his role as Select Group Manager at PGMOL as he gets set for his new role in Scottish football, beginning in early December in a role that will see him work closely with Collum.

The 53-year-old was involved in top-flight English refereeing for two decades and accumulated the second-highest number of Premier League referee appointments with a whopping 463. In addition, he was the man in the middle of the 2011 FA Cup Final, the 2014 League Cup Final and the 2015 UEFA Europa League Final.

READ MORE: 6 reasons why Aberdeen CAN challenge Celtic for the title as Rangers plunge into further crisis

READ MORE: Derek McInnes is Rangers next manager favourite but here's why he'd snub Ibrox job AGAIN

On the appointment, Collum said: “I am delighted to appoint someone of Martin’s calibre as VAR Manager. I did not expect to be recruiting for that position again so quickly, but Jon received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and went with our best wishes.

“I am pleased Martin has agreed to continue the considerable work undertaken to date in optimising our VAR operation and I’m sure our VAR officials and match officials generally will look forward to working with someone of Martin’s experience at Clydesdale House, as will I and the rest of my team.”

Atkinson himself added: “I look forward to this exciting new challenge and have been impressed by the significant strides forward Scottish football has taken with VAR implementation since Willie arrived.

"I look forward to continuing that work and supporting Willie, the match officials and the team at the Scottish FA.”