VAR WON’T BE PERFECT... BUT IT WILL GET MORE CALLS RIGHT

WE welcomed some of the SFA’S refereeing fraternity to Ayrshire last week for a briefing on the implementation of VAR.

Every member of my coaching and playing staff sat in and it was a worthwhile meeting that answered a few questions.

Category One referee Euan Anderson led the session and took us through a few examples from last season.

As manager I came away with the realisation that set-pieces are now going to be different. There will be less blocking because of the extra scrutiny, less contact in both penalty boxes.

The challenge is to find different ways to take advantage of that.

When the video technology was first mooted a couple of years ago I felt we had to get it done, just to prevent us turning into a backwater country. I don’t think it’s perfect and we’ve all seen that watching games from England.

But although it will at times create controversy, the biggest thing is that we will get more correct decisions overall.

That has to be important.

We’ll have six cameras feeding back to a remote hub, where officials will provide added support, allowing referees to make game-changing decisions with the benefit of replays.

By watching the same incident on repeat you are more likely to come to the right conclusion and while some incidents will still leave you arguing the point, allowing the referee to review things is a step forward.

It will take a bit of getting used to and it won’t be straightforward. But I hope it doesn’t get messy or become the main topic of discussion after every game.

I hope people get to celebrate goals properly, too — we don’t want to take the spontaneity of the game away.

The delays will take a bit of getting used to and might challenge the flow of a game but getting to the right decision is more important.

The authorities are now planning to bring in the technology before the World Cup. I don’t know why it hasn’t been made ready for the start of the season, if that’s down to the technology or training, but I’m not sure there is any other league who would start halfway.

By the same token I don’t think we should then wait until next season. If VAR is there and ready we should run with it as soon as possible.