Scottish Cup semis could have been used for VAR

A trial run of Video Assistant Referees in Scottish football was scuppered by the coronavirus lockdown.

SFA head of referees Crawford Allan revealed yesterday that the Scottish Cup semi-finals that were to have been staged this weekend had been earmarked as an opportunity to test the VAR set-up in Hampden ahead of Euro 2020. The national stadium was due to host tournament games this summer before the global pandemic led to Euro 2020 being delayed till June 2021.

“[Because] the technology was due to be installed at Hampden Park for Euro 2020 we had some detailed discussions on whether we could have used the opportunity to have some live testing during the William Hill Scottish Cup semifinals or finals,” said Allan.

“Unfortunately the postponement of the Euros for 12 months has removed that possibility but I remain optimistic that we will have VAR before long.”

However, Allan considers that the potential for VAR to become a feature of the Scottish game in the short term may have been diminished because of the fall-out from the current health emergency.

“There are financial implications and ongoing year-on-year costs for VAR,” he said in a Q&A with the SFA. “With the recent downturn in the economy and income to football in general, this may have an impact on the viability of VAR in the short term and the timing of its potential introduction to Scotland. I am in favour of its introduction and I know a lot of the Premiership clubs have come out in favour of it, so it may be a matter of timing.

“VAR was being analysed in some detail prior to lockdown and we have been talking to suppliers and obtaining costs. We have also been talking to a number of other countries across Europe to learn from them: consistently it takes between six to nine months to fully implementvarandtherequired infrastructure, and to train all relevant groups.

“But I understand there are far more important matters that we are contending with at present.”