VAR will impact Celtic more than any club in world football

If there is any club in world football that will benefit from the introduction of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, it is Celtic – in my opinion.  Other opinions are possible.  Refereeing is wide open to interpretation by fallible officials and is seldom consistent.

In my football supporting life, countless shoves in the box have been viewed as a penalty, or not.  The 2005 penalty at Tynecastle, when Rangers needed a late goal, springs to mind as quickly as the offside goal Newco ‘scored’ at Hampden on Sunday.  Then there’s the 1993 Douglas Hope decision, to allow Rangers to take kick off while 8 Celtic players were celebrating a goal in front of the Jungle.  Technically not a VAR issue, but a demonstration of what can happen without appropriate supervision.

VAR does not remove mistakes, honest or otherwise, however, it will make them significantly less likely.  When it is introduced to the Scottish Premiership in December, it will change the way we celebrate goals.  At the moment, I often glance at the linesman as a goal celebration starts, to check his flag is pointing in the right direction.  Only then can there be certainty.  From December, we will need to wait, often for several minutes, to find out if a goal has actually been scored.

The biggest impact of VAR will be as a deterrent.  Defenders will learn to stop grabbing shirts inside the box, off the ball incidents should quickly dry up, talent should be allowed to flourish.  Teams that learn this quickly will be first to benefit.

Yesterday’s decision feels momentous for the future of the game in Scotland.

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