There is no prospect of Scottish football getting rid of VAR, with Scottish FA president Mike Mulraney saying that it would put our top clubs and the national side at a disadvantage if the game here dispensed with the technology.
Mulraney acknowledges that the VAR process can be a frustrating one for supporters, but he doesn’t believe the issues with long delays are unique to Scotland, and he has backed incoming head of refereeing operations Willie Collum to help iron out problems with its implementation.
A vote on the future of VAR was held amongst English Premier League clubs last week, with only Wolverhampton Wanderers supporting their own proposal that the league should no longer use the technology.
But such a vote is unlikely to even happen in Scotland, says Mulraney, who believes that as long as VAR is being widely used in UEFA competitions, it must also be used in the Scottish Premiership.
“VAR is here to stay, one hundred percent,” Mulraney said.
“Unequivocally, one hundred percent. The alternative is that our big teams are disadvantaged in Europe and our national teams are disadvantaged in Europe. It’s going nowhere.
“VAR for our nation is still newer than it is for other nations. We think – and I genuinely believe this – that the implementation has been successful.
“Anybody that thinks we are way behind the curve in Europe or so forth needs to go and visit some of these other countries, because when I do go, all I hear about are the challenges they are having with VAR.
“And of course the problem is that, when VAR came in, lots of people thought that would mean no more mistakes. It was never going to stop mistakes, it was simply going to make them less. But there is obviously going to be more focus on that.
“I was last to the party with VAR – because I didn’t want it. I was chair of the PGB (Professional Game Board) that brought it in, and I will tell you why.
“This European Championship we are going to will have VAR. And if we didn’t you would have to see the penalties all the Scottish based players would give away. You would see the goals the forwards wouldn’t get because they don’t understand the VAR rules.
“Scottish teams would go into Europe with no VAR and wouldn’t be used to playing with it. It would be a material disadvantage for the nation not to have VAR.
“You might not like it and, if the whole of Europe decided that they didn’t want VAR, I would maybe be putting my hand up along with them. But as long as VAR features in international UEFA competitions, we need to have it.”
Mulraney says it is up to all stakeholders in the Scottish game to get behind Collum as he tries to improve the in-stadium fan experience of VAR, as he also defended the recruitment process that led to the former grade one referee being selected to replace the outgoing Crawford Allan.
“Willie is coming in, and we did a genuine international trawl for someone to come in and join us, and he was the standout candidate,” he said.
“His enthusiasm for what we wanted to change, for the game and – critically – for our game and make it better in Scotland made him the standout candidate. I’m sure he is going to make changes and I’m sure there are still going to be mistakes.
“That’s not just for Willie [the challenge to improve VAR], it’s for all of us. It’s for the SFA, it’s for people in stadiums and for the clubs as well.
“One quite difficult thing is when you look at a game and the fans are sitting saying, ‘Why is this taking so long?’ I’ll give you an example.
“I am sitting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino watching St Mirren playing Aberdeen. There is a penalty controversy, and everyone is saying, ‘It must be straight forward.’ It’s either a foul or it’s not a foul and it’s either inside the box or it’s not, why did it take almost four minutes? The frustration becomes overwhelming.
“What turns out to be the problem is the offside 15 seconds before, which is so marginal. So, they have three or four decisions to make, and the crowd are asking, ‘how can it possibly take this long to decide if it was inside or outside the box?’
“So, we are still learning. The whole of international football is learning, we are certainly learning, and we have to figure out how we get the message to fans, because it’s not good enough and takes too long.
“Decisions have to be quicker and for me there’s an argument for us over-refereeing. But I’m an administrator, I’m a strategist. The guys on the shop floor are so much better at that than me, but our refs have been doing a good job and will continue to do a good job.
“The implementation of VAR was a success, but as with anything after you put it in you have to evaluate and improve. So, with VAR we have brought it in, we are evaluating, and we will improve.
“There will inevitably be change and I don’t want to say what that’s going to be because that’s for the referees, but we want to do things differently and better. You must always strive to improve, you must always strive for more.
“I have no doubt whatsoever, because he told me, that Willie wants all of those things.”
