When VAR was introduced to Scottish football initially many fans might have been in favour, go back and ask them now you may get a difference answer, a lot has happened since that Friday night when first introduced at a premiership match between Hibs and St Johnstone.
After nearly three years of planning, development and testing FIFA have give Scottish football the green light to introduce Video Assistant Referee.
VAR HQ is coordinated centrally from the video operations room at Clydesdale H
ouse in Glasgow, there to assist on field referee in the event of a clear and obviously error on a serious missed incident.
From that Friday night in Edinburgh till this day there are still questions to be asked, views from many supporters of any Scottish club that think it's not a good thing for Scottish football.
Remember the day when you went to watch your team playing and you'd come out and say that was a great goal ,or that was a end to end game, now you come away to talk about that VAR decision, or why did it go for a on field review.
I mean to introduce it during a season, the one thing I can't believe Scottish Premiership doesn't have is goal line technology.
A recent survey conducted by Scottish Football Supporters Association showed the following ;
- 86% of fans believe that VAR has reduced their enjoyment of the game.
- Only 4% of fans believe VAR has increased their enjoyment of the game
– 95% of fans feel the time delays around VAR decisions are too long
– 66% of fans would rather tolerate wrong decisions than see the flow of the game disrupted by VAR
92% of fans want goal line technology introduced in Scotland
70% of fans think match officials are now relying on VAR to make decisions for them
There are at least six television cameras atach game but VAR officials will be able to use more footage and angles from broadcast partners at live television matches. Two are in the main stands, one on each of the 18 yard and line and one behind each goal, compare that to England, they have 42 cameras.
When you are in the stadium and decision goes to VAR you can't see a reply of what they are looking at all it said is "VAR possible checked" but you dependent on some one who watched the games at home to text you to tell you what they are looking at as you don't know but you are at the games.
Out of the 12 clubs in Premiership, half of those don't have LED scoreboards to display any VAR message in their stadium, announcers will get a notification if a review is in place and what it's for , they can then inform the fans.
Every fan who pays to see their team shouldn't have to endure the unpredictability and tension of VAR decision which isn't part of their coverage from the park.
When the ref goes to the monitor, the time it takes to make a decision is ridiculous and now are you are see 8,10 minutes stoppage time or maybe more at the end of the game. Some of that time are for subs but the majority of the time is for VAR, during that added time what happens if someone has to level the end of the game and misses out on the winning goal.
VAR is such a contentious issue for fans, surely their team should be listening to their concerns, after all they are ones keeping the lights on.
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