VAR is a mess but we cannot just quit on it
ABERDEEN will no doubt find a sympathetic ear in many corners if they do go properly to town on VAR and push ahead with thoughts of calling for its abolition.
Motherwell, given some of their recent pronouncements, won’t be terribly far behind. And there are plenty of others likely to be willing to listen too.
For those of us who advocated and supported the introduction of VAR, the unholy mess that has unfolded has been a matter of abject disappointment.
The events of this season, in particular, and the way the technology has been administered have been impossible to defend — including officials guessing that Bojan Miovski’s late goal against Livingston should be chalked off when the equipment had broken down and no one from the Dons was any the wiser.
But where do we go with the greater issue of trying to make refereeing in this country better if we pull up the drawbridge?
Obliterate VAR and you effectively obliterate the chance of Scottish officials ever having the chance to go to top-rank tournaments and build their base of experience — because there is no sign of video review systems going the way of the dodo at that level.
What we have right now is nowhere near good enough. That’s agreed.
But there is a new head of refereeing coming in at the SFA and that individual deserves a chance to reform the system with all options and avenues open.
We need to stick with it for now in the hope that new blood can lead to a new plan for a better standard of officiating, in general, because that remains the key.
It gets progressively harder to be optimistic, but doing away with VAR would feel like an admission of defeat. And an admission, almost, that we’re stuck with what we’ve got. For good.