The Scottish FA have lurched from one refereeing crisis to another this season and, despite their best attempts, it’ll be hard to shake off the latest drama.
Aberdeen issued an angry statement this week, expressing their belief that the current VAR system in Scottish football is inadequate. Their frustration stems from a recent 0-0 match against Livingston, where a close offside decision was reviewed by VAR but the Hawkeye technology malfunctioned. This led to officials making subjective judgments instead of relying on the initial on-field call.
The effectiveness of VAR in Scotland is now under scrutiny, especially given recent errors that have affected teams like Celtic. Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton supports Aberdeen’s stance, emphasizing that the SFA must address this crisis promptly and effectively.
Chris Sutton on latest SFA VAR farce
The outspoken pundit voiced his concerns to the Daily Record, stating, “It reflects poorly on Scottish football. Take the recent Aberdeen VAR incident for example. It’s an astounding situation, with the SFA now trying to justify their decision despite essentially making a guess at the time.
“They couldn’t overturn the call if the technology failed. If Hawkeye wasn’t functioning, they should have relied on the traditional method of letting the on-field officials make the decision.
“Peering at a screen and hoping for the best simply isn’t acceptable. I fully support Aberdeen’s frustration as they had every right to be upset.
“Imagine if this had happened during Sunday’s derby – we would have needed international intervention. Such incidents can have significant implications for league standings and financial repercussions for clubs. The SFA must seriously reconsider how they manage VAR as errors continue to mount.
“It’s disheartening to see this VAR debacle following a weekend where Scottish football was showcased positively.”
VAR becoming increasingly unpopular
Other leagues have more resources and can implement a higher standard of VAR technology but the version in place for the Scottish Premiership is poor and, increasingly, not worth the hassle.
It would be difficult to scrap at this point but there’s swelling opinion that it is not a good thing for the game here, taking into account the match experience and that way it is being utilised by SFA officials.
Clubs need to seriously think about whether it’s worth the outlay every season. At the very least, they need to put pressure on the SFA to communicate how it plans to make it a better system moving forward.
Transparency is key and the culture needs to change at Hampden, where decision-makers seem intent on defensiveness and making poor justifications for failures.
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