VAR is working exactly as SFA predicted

Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell is adamant the implementation of VAR has served its purpose so far, despite criticism surrounding its use.

The technology was introduced in the cinch Premiership in late October but there have been a range of gripes from managers, players and supporters over certain decisions and the length of time taken for incidents to be checked.

Maxwell acknowledges there have been “challenges” in the early weeks of VAR, but insists the system is ultimately resulting in more correct calls being made.

“VAR has been good,” said the SFA chief. “It’s done what it should do. The technology has worked and the number of correct decisions has increased in line with the global standard, in terms of they talk about taking it from 92% correct decisions up to 98%.

“That’s what has happened here. But in typical Scottish football fashion we’re spending a lot of time talking about fewer decisions because there is always going to be that subjective element to some decisions, that conjecture and debate about whether things were right or wrong. The technology has worked.

“The clubs have invested heavily in the technology and infrastructure that is required. The system is good.

“We’re always going to have one or two decisions people think could have been made differently but that’s part of VAR across the globe. We’re not any different from anybody else.

“We’ve seen examples in Qatar (at the World Cup) of challenges with VAR round about handball, round about penalties. The challenges around VAR and refereeing decisions are consistent across football, it’s not a Scottish-only problem by any stretch of the imagination.

“From a Scottish FA perspective, VAR is doing what it should as far as we’re concerned.”

Maxwell is confident concerns about VAR in Scotland will dissipate once everyone adapts to it.

“Uefa said when we were about to implement it that in every country that has done so there has been a period of settling in where everybody’s had to get used to it,” he said.

“I think there is a perception it’s going to cure all ills and there will never be a wrong decision, but that’s just not the reality.

“The longer we’ve got it, the more supporters can get used to it and the slicker we can become in term of its use and the amount of time it takes to check decisions.

“That will all help improve the experience, but fundamentally it’s about getting decisions right on a matchday and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Maxwell was on a Zoom call with match officials and Premiership managers on Tuesday to discuss some of the issues encountered in the early weeks of VAR.

“Us giving them some feedback on the challenges we have from a refereeing perspective and them giving us feedback on the challenges from a gamemanagement perspective, from a dugout perspective, how the communication works between the fourth official and the managers is hugely important,” he said.

“From the educational aspect, we’re still in the very early stages of everybody understanding exactly what it does and how it works.

“The more we can communicate, the easier it will be.”

Maxwell was speaking at a special event, hosted by the Scottish FA, at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground in Glasgow yesterday to mark the 150th anniversary of the first official men’s international football game between Scotland and England.

SYSTEM IS GOOD: SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell says Uefa warned that there would be a settling-in period while clubs got used to it.