Since the beginning of the month in Spain, referees have started making themselves available for interview after matches to explain decisions and improve transparency.

It has led to people here asking why Scotland’s whistlers aren’t doing the same — and those questions are perfectly valid.

Back in August 2023, leading official John Beaton addressed calls for greater openness around VAR and gave the impression the refereeing firmament were in favour of a new spirit of glasnost.

‘Anything to explain how we are arriving at decisions and anything we can do to show people what we do on a Saturday and what happens in the VAR centre, we absolutely welcome,’ he said.

‘The more transparency, the better. The more questions we get, the more answers we can provide and, we hope, get to a better place,’

That was followed by new head of refereeing Willie Collum’s VAR show on YouTube the following season. At that point, there seemed a real move to lift the lid and build confidence in our men in black. There was talk of Collum doing his programme more than once a month and suggestions referees might even be open to being interviewed post-match in the right circumstances.

Unfortunately, though, all that has come to nothing and last term — in which controversial decisions had a huge effect on the title race — feels like it could become an obstacle in the way of progress.

It needn’t be, though. There has always been a feeling among referees that being put in front of the cameras carried danger. SFA Ian Maxwell has also spoken about the game being subject to ‘fairly hysterical commentary’ when something bad happens.

The media environment here is nowhere near as febrile as in Spain, though. It has four newspapers dedicated to sport alone. There are countless chat shows on council telly full of talking heads. Ages ago, news bulletins there had lipreaders telling viewers what coaches and players were saying on the park. Jose Mourinho is also back ruffling officials’ feathers at Real Madrid.

Getting Spanish refs to a place where they feel ready to be interviewed has taken time. It has also taken extra cash for them from TV money and it can still go a lot further.

A selected referee will speak to broadcast rights-holders only. And it’s not after every game. Only selected fixtures.

The SFA made real progress a couple of years back in lifting the curtain and should seek to rediscover that momentum — even though it won’t make the key issue of having to improve overall standards go away.

Since last year, the Spanish FA have been broadcasting their own YouTube show ‘Tiempo de Revision’ to address flashpoints. It should be said that it’s inferior to Collum’s broadcast in terms of content.

It replays incidents against a musical backdrop with captions explaining the decisions. There is no in-game audio, no one like Collum putting himself out there.

Although some of his reasoning for big calls was a bit suspect last term, that programme remains a platform to build from.

There is no reason why referees shouldn’t explain their decision-making after games here. Criticism they may or may not receive in the aftermath shouldn’t come into it.

If Spanish whistlers can go public, so can they.