Stewart Robertson has highlighted on more than one occasion that Scottish football is living in the dark ages, thanks, in no small part to the people who run the game at both the SFA and SPFL
When the leagues in Cyprus and Kosovo both already have VAR in place and we don’t as the 9th ranked country on UEFA’s coefficient list, it tells you everything you need to know about just how much they are holding us back.
With VAR in place, a penalty for Aberdeen wouldn’t have been given, Ryan Kent wouldn’t have been sent off, two penalties would have been awarded against Dundee United and Motherwell’s equaliser would have been chalked off for offside and that’s without the red card they should have had or Alfredo Morelos’s two disallowed goals being considered – in short, not having it is costing us points.
And it’s not just us that suffer, every week teams lose points because penalties aren’t awarded, players are wrongly adjudged to be offside or red card tackles go unpunished, the officials need help.
A report in The Scottish Sun claims that the cost of implementing the system has doubled but this shouldn’t affect the debate, again, just look at some of the other leagues that have it, if they can afford it then surely we can too?
Neil Doncaster massively undersells our league when he can be bothered to negotiate sponsorship and TV deals, and on this occasion he should be going back to those that cover the game in Scotland and making them foot the bill for VAR – the quality of product on offer would be significantly better if there were fewer officiating errors being made, I won’t, however, hold my breath.