I hope this doesn’t come across as sour grapes after Scotland’s controversial exit from the women’s World Cup, but in my view, VAR should get so far into the sea that you would have to perform a colonoscopy on King Trident to ever lay eyes on it again.

Yes, yes, I know. It is inexcusable for Scotland to blow a three-goal lead with 15 minutes to go, but don’t try to tell me they only have themselves to blame. A major slice of the culpability for their downfall lies with them of course, but that can be acknowledged while also decrying the shambolic and grossly unsporting way their fate was sealed.

Perhaps though it is not the technology itself that is to blame for scenes such as that catastrophic conclusion in the Parc des Princes, but the rules it is being used to enforce to the pettiest degree imaginable. The great solution to eradicating major refereeing errors has instead become the main weapon in the pedants’ attack on the game. And if we’re not careful, it could lead to its destruction.

The theory behind using video assistant referees to help the on-field officials is a sound idea in principle, but in practice, it has been hamstrung by the minute infringements it is often being used to bring to the referee’s attention. It is the snotty-nosed clipe that grasses you into the teacher for chewing gum, a medium that has become obsessed with protecting the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the game.

The only thing clear and obvious about the way VAR is being used, is that this particular directive seems to have been shelved in favour of dissecting miniscule indiscretions. A goalkeeper a millimetre off their line here, a shot hammered off a hand that just happens not to be tucked behind a back there.

This isn’t what VAR was intended for. It isn’t football as we know and love it. And at the root of it all are the changes to rules that far from clearing up issues like encroachment or handball, have simply muddied the waters to such an extent that neither the players nor the officials seem to know what the hell is going on. And as for the spectators in the stadium, well, who cares about them, eh?

I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that the game is at a critical point in its history, where its very soul is at stake. Trying to define the ‘spirit of the game’ in a few words is nigh on impossible, but when you see incidents that go against it with your own eyes, you know instantly and instinctively that is what you are seeing. Never has the phrase ‘the game isn’t played on paper’ been as apt as it is when describing the undue weighting that referees are currently giving to the rulebook over common sense.

So it was when the referee pulled up Scotland keeper Lee Alexander for stepping off her line before performing what should now be remembered as a heroic double-save to deny Florencia Bonsegundo’s late penalty on Wednesday night in Paris. But Alexander was robbed of her ‘McFadden moment’ in the same stadium where James thwacked in the winner for Scotland 12 years ago. Instead of going down in folklore as a hero who took her nation to the last 16 of a World Cup, all she got was a yellow card for her troubles and a stern reminder from the hopelessly out-of-her-depth official, Ri-Hyang Ok, that she was not allowed to move before the ball was past her and in the onion bag lest she be sent off.

On this particular point, the referee couldn’t be blamed. She doesn’t make the rules. But she also allowed Argentina to take the free-kick that led to their penalty just as eventual offender, Sophie Howard, stepped onto the pitch as a substitute on the half-way line hopelessly out of position, and then played just one minute extra after the eight-minute stoppage (at least) for the penalty. So, any good-will towards the North Korean is, frankly, oot the windae.

It all goes to show that an inept official is still an inept official, and VAR in such hands is simply serving to highlight that ineptitude further, rather than providing a counter-balance to it.

The first penalty shootout of the tournament is going to be some laugh. If the new rule about having one foot on the line is enforced to such a degree as it was with Alexander (which it now has to be), it will either be 23-22 and last an hour, or both keepers will be sent packing.

I often wonder if the people who make the rules in football have ever played the game. Former Livingston and now QPR goalkeeper Liam Kelly summed it up in a social media post reacting to he events, saying; “That is honestly the worst decision I’ve ever seen in my life. She needs to dive forward you absolute fools.” That isn’t the goalkeeper’s union talking, there’s just no other way to save the ball unless it’s hit straight at you. The new rule also states, remember, that keepers aren’t allowed to stand behind the line, so where is their momentum coming from?

The new handball directive is similarly preposterous and could only have been worded by someone who has never blocked a ball in their puff. Since when was a player going to block a shot or a cross with their hands behind their backs like an army private waiting to be inspected part of their ‘natural silhouette’?

The lawmakers at FIFA, not for the first time granted, are treading on very dangerous ground. Football, sometimes, isn’t black and white, and it is the grey areas that in fact provide the colour. If VAR’s tentacles are allowed to insidiously creep further into the flow of a match on their watch, pulling up every little infraction, it is in danger of suffocating the joy out of it completely.

Make no mistake, there is a war going on right now for the game’s soul between the pedants and the purists. And if the former wins, we all lose.

AND ANOTHER THING...

LAST week, I wrote of how David Turnbull's proposed transfer to Celtic was a win-win situation. As it turned out, he disagreed.

Whatever your view on Turnbull's decision to go to Norwich instead though, it would be misguided to put it down to money. If the player was so motivated, there would have been no reason for him to have signed a contract with Motherwell in January, given that he could have potentially pocketed a much larger signing on fee when moving on had he not.

Instead, his decision would have been based on what was best for his development as a player, whether you agree with the merits of that decision or not.