Writing in the Glasgow Times, Rangers club ambassador Derek Johnstone has delivered his verdict on VAR following Sunday’s defeat to Celtic.
The Gers were downed by a Christopher Jullien goal in the League Cup final, despite the Hoops centre-back being clearly offside as the set-piece delivery which picked him out, was struck.
Following the game, we argued that VAR was vital for the credibility of Scottish football going forward, at least for the showpiece games.
However, Johnstone is wary about the viability and merits of introducing it in its current form.
“Given the finances involved, I just don’t see a time when it will be implemented here,” he wrote in the Glasgow Times. “You can’t just do it for Old Firm games or finals, it has to be in place for everybody.”
“The system in England is far from perfect. Rather than the referee going to look at a monitor at the side of the park, it is an official hundreds of miles away in a TV studio that is making the decisions.
“The majority of the time, VAR is great. But there are mistakes and it does still need work. It would have helped on Sunday, for sure. That goal would not have stood if VAR was available at Hampden.”
In sum, then, Johnstone thinks it’s a system which does effectively prevent clear and obvious errors, but that it’s still experiencing major teething problems and that its costs would be prohibitive in Scottish football.
Verdict
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who argues that VAR is perfect.
There have been enough instances around Europe this season alone, where there’s been more controversy with the system than there would have been without it.
Yet, it’s hard to escape the fundamental reality that had it been in action at Hampden on Sunday, Celtic’s winner wouldn’t have stood.
Games of that magnitude simply shouldn’t be decided by preventable errors.
For me, there is no need to roll this out across Scotland, not initially anyway. That would involve massive financial commitment for a system that still needs fine-tuning. You can argue that over the course of a league season, decisions even themselves out.
Yet, that simply isn’t the case when it comes to semi-finals and finals. Bringing in VAR for those games alone in future seasons is surely a realistic prospect and a step Scottish football should be taking so as not to be completely left behind by the rest of Europe.
