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'I'M PROUD OF IT'
Refereeing saved me from a culture of drugs and gangs reveals Willie Collum
He says he's proud of where he comes from - despite negative connotations - and has also opened up on his failed attempts to be a GOALKEEPER
AS a goalkeeper, he couldn’t save a football.
As a referee, football saved him.
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Willie Collum knew at 14 he was never going to make the grade as a player after conceding 18 GOALS on his school team debut.
But he soon realised just making it in life was his real target growing up in Glasgow’s tough East End.
It’s an upbringing Collum is immensely proud of.
But he saw real poverty up close with an alcohol, drugs and gang culture in the 80s gripping so many in his neighbourhood - which motivated him to use refereeing as his own way out.
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In an exclusive interview with SunSport - which can be watched now on our YouTube channel - Collum revealed: “I grew up at time when there were a lot of gangs.
“There was a lot of drugs, there was a lot of drink.
“There was a lot of distractions in life which could have taken you in different directions.
“I don’t like saying ‘I came from this’.
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“What I would say is that refereeing did save me from that culture, the drugs and the drink and the gangs.
“When you are growing up in the East End of Glasgow in the 80s, people didn’t have a lot. I don’t think I actually recognised it at the time.
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“I was very fortunate in that my mother and father were working class who had jobs. We never really struggled.
“But I saw people around me who struggled to put food on the table or to have uniforms or shoes to go to school.
“I have some stories that stick in my mind which were almost a turning point in my life. At one point I was just muddling through life.
“I wasn’t doing anything exceptional at school but quickly realised through some harsh experiences with people I was friendly with, that I wanted to do something with my own life.
“And I wanted to make a difference for other people.
“I genuinely mean this, that while I don’t live in the East End of Glasgow now, I’m proud to represent the people from there.
“Maybe they aren’t so proud of me. But that’s an important thing for me.
“When people see referees, they don’t see the real person. I was tarred often enough about having the school teacher approach.
“But all the things I experienced early in my life helped build me as a person and gave me a lot of resilience.
“I can remember one of my pals not having shoes to come to school because his brother was wearing them. That is emotional for me.
“I’m also aware, from my time in education until very recently, that shockingly that’s still the case for a lot of families in 2025.”
That’s why Collum is now driven to make refereeing attainable for anyone and everyone, regardless of their background.
He added: “I lived in Bridgeton all my life, up until I got married. And I’m proud of my upbringing.
“Somebody from Bridgeton was saying to me recently they lived in Lower Merchant City. But I’m proud of where I grew up.
“It was very working class and I think it gave me a good grounding in life which was really, really important.
“It’s funny, because when you watched Sportscene or Scotsport when I was young, they told you where the referees were from and it was always highfalutin area. That was the reality.
“But I gave a presentation to the staff very early on when I came to the Scottish FA and one of my clear messages was that refereeing was a for all.
I WON'T STOP 'TIL OUR WHISTLERS ARE TOP
SunSport's Robert Grieve and Bill Leckie with ref chief Willie Collum
WILLIE COLLUM has opened up on his determination to make Scotland’s under-fire whistlers better.
The SFA’s Head of Refereeing has been in the job nine months.
And in an exclusive interview - live now on the SunSport YouTube channel - Collum has vowed to bring improvement.
He said: “I said when I came into this role that I would make our referees better.
“But there is an idea for me, right now, that people want perfection.
“That VAR would bring perfection.
“But VAR is never going to be perfect and that’s not unique to Scotland.
“What I will say is that we are working around the clock.
“We have had 43 online coaching sessions with the top referees this season, pretty much one a week.
“From week to week, we are telling our referees what we expect.
“If anyone wants to say there won’t be any mistakes, that just won’t happen.
“But we want to reduce the amount of mistakes.”
Collum replaced Crawford Allan at the SFA last summer after 31 years as a whistler.
He added: “The job has its challenges.
“But the positives far outweigh the negatives and I’m really, really enjoying it.
“I’m also feeling as though this is an opportunity to give something back to refereeing.
“I had all those years out on the pitch being coached by other people and now it’s my chance.
“When the time came for me to step away from refereeing, I was frightened. There was fear there.
“I spent a lot of nights talking with my wife, asking if it was the right thing. But it came at the right time for me.
“At that point, I was tired. I had also achieved what I wanted from the game, and that was important.
“I was just worried about missing the pitch, really worried. I was worried about my mental health with that, if I’m honest.”
“And I think that comes from my background in education.
“When I left my role, I had a responsibility at the council for closing the poverty relation attainment gap. It’s a passion of mine.
“That’s not just bringing young people out of poverty but also families too and giving them every opportunity to succeed in life.
And I think that had a big affect on me.
“Refereeing now isn’t about having to be a lawyer or a doctor. The door is open to anybody.
“I don’t care what your job is, what your background is. If you’re good enough, we’ll get you there.”
Collum was just 14 when he took charge of his first game.
He recalled: “It was a red ash pitch on the edge of Anderson. I only refereed once a season on grass, after I started in 1993.
“All the finals were at Nethercraigs in Pollok and if you were lucky to be a linesman or referee selected, you went there.
“My ma used to kill me taking my boots home with all the red ash!
“But I remember going to blow the whistle for the first time, thinking ‘what am I going to do here?’
“I maybe blew the whistle too much. But I was 14 and never looked back.
“I had probably hid it from my pals at the time that I wanted to be a referee. But in my third year I could see people taking an interest.
“One of my regrets is that I became so focused that I probably lost touch with a lot of those people I went to school with. And I often think about where they are now.”
Collum finds himself in the firing line as the SFA’s Head of Refereeing. But it’s nothing compared to that debut for the school team.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
He added: “All I wanted to be was a goalkeeper and I wad delighted to get picked for my school team. And we got beat 18-0.
“I was really worried about going into school the next day because I thought I was going to get a doing. But that was my playing career.”
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