Celtic Park to miss out on VAR after Cluj defeat

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Celtic Park has been denied its first chance to sample the Video Assistant Referee after the Hoops lost to CFR Cluj on Tuesday night.

Neil Lennon’s men lost 5-4 on aggregate to the Romanian champions and, as a result, won’t get to use the new technological craze over the next fortnight. VAR is set to be used in the Champions League play-off round meaning that the Hoops’ potential tie against Slavia Prague would have had it in place.

That would have given Celtic Park another nice accolade as the first Scottish stadium to use the new system.

When could we see VAR at Celtic Park?

VAR won’t be used for the majority of this season’s Europa League with proper implementation not expected until next year’s competition.

The information is a little hazy although this official release from UEFA in February stated that they “intended to deploy VAR in the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League from the group stage onwards”. The system was used in last season’s final in Baku so Celtic will have to get all the way through to Gdansk if they’re to use it this season.

The news is the least of Celtic’s worries at the minute but it is another reminder that we are very much out of the Champions League now. We’re now in the Europa League and suddenly you don’t seem quite as important to UEFA.