Brendan Rodgers has decided that VAR would be the best way forward for Scottish football referees.
The Celtic manager has long been in favour of full-time referees. But in his comments to the written press yesterday, the Hoops boss said he would rather have the new video technology that’s sweeping the game.
VAR has of course been a massive success in England, the USA, and at the World Cup in the summer. It’s solved plenty of problems with regards to offside goals and red card decisions.
And after Rangers’ Alfredo Morelos got away with absolute murder against Celtic last month, Rodgers has called for it to be introduced.
“It has to be VAR – 100 percent. If you can’t do both, and have full-time refs as well, then you would have to do VAR.
“I say that because at least then, at every ground, you would get the decision right. For example, with us at the weekend, with Scott Sinclair’s goal. They could easily go back on that and see it was a good goal.
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“The meeting last week was very productive, even if it didn’t work for us at the weekend, mind. It is ongoing. Hopefully going forward it can improve.”
VAR would do Celtic a lot of good
We like to draw the line at conspiracy theories, but VAR would do Celtic a lot of good – put it that way.
For a start, and even though they didn’t deserve it, Celtic would’ve beaten Rangers at Ibrox. 10-man Rangers wouldn’t have had enough to beat Celtic, regardless of how poor the Hoops were on the day. Sinclair would also have clearly have had his hat-trick too on Saturday.
The likes of Steven Naismith and Kyle Lafferty would consistently be sent off against Celtic – instead of the yellow card and 12 warnings they get after it.
Rodgers and the club are clearly sick of the over-aggression on Celtic players. They’re even more frustrated at a lack of action being done regarding it too.
And the Celtic manager is right to choose VAR. It takes away the human-error aspect of decision-making. Sure, the decision still needs to be made by referees watching the footage, but it’s there for them in black-and-white.
Then again, Beaton saw all of Morelos’ incidents last month and still didn’t send him off.
Let’s see if Scottish football now has the courage to actually make steps in getting VAR into our game.