Livingston's battling win over Aberdeen was just the latest Premiership clash dominated by VAR with no less than three stoppages leading to penalties. And the trio spot-kicks in that game have taken the Premiership average up to an incredible average of 0.65 per game – nearly triple what it was before the technology was introduced.
It's not even three weeks since it was first introduced but it's fair to say VAR has already made its mark in the Scottish Premiership. We can argue all day about whether it's splitting hairs that don't need to be split, or if it's simply highlighting errors that were regularly missed before, but either way, a sharp rise in the number of spot-kicks is one of the chief effects it's having. We'd seen 17 penalties across 63 games before it was introduced for St Johnstone's win over Hibs three weeks ago. In the 20 games since it was brought in, we've already seen an incredible 13 penalties given.
It means the average per game has almost trebled - from 0.27 per game , which was more or less the same average from last season (0.25), to 0.65 per game - meaning if you're watching a Scottish Premiership match, you're likely to see a spot-kick more often than not. It all means that we've gone from having roughly 1.6 penalties per matchweek to almost four penalties per round of Premiership fixtures. Extrapolated over the course of a full 228 game season, that would lead to 152 penalties a season. In the last campaign, there were only 56 given.
So back to Livingston. While neither Jim Goodwin nor David Martindale had too much to say on the technology – perhaps an indication that all three decisions were correct – you haven't had to look far for moans and groans.
Ange Postecoglou and Robbie Neilson have been among the recent complainers about the technology, the Celtic boss bemoaning the stop-start effect it's having on the game, while the Hearts manager blasted "discrepancies" after Louis Moult's penalty at Tynecastle. For better or worse, though, there seems to be a growing acceptance that this is is the new reality, and we can only hope it fades into the background once the teething problems are ironed out. Bottom line is – expect to see this rise in penalties given increase.
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