Celtic set for crucial SPFL vote; what Ange Postecoglou has said

By John McGinley

April 18, 2022

Celtic will take part in a vote on the introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) to Scottish football on Tuesday.

All 42 member clubs of the SPFL will have their say on whether or not to put the system in place.

In order for it to get the green light, 75% of Premiership clubs, 75% of clubs in the Championship and 75% of League One and League Two clubs will have to vote in favour. However, it’s only scheduled to be introduced to the top-flight.

If it passes, the Scottish FA plan on implementing it mid-season for the return of Premiership action after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year. Trials are already underway, with referees also being trained up.

The 12 top-flight clubs will pay from between 5.63% to 16.29% of the costs each, based on where they finish in the table.

It’s understood Celtic are in favour of its introduction. They’ll be eager for the other member clubs to pass the vote without any drama, although this is the SPFL we’re talking about so anything can happen!

Bhoys boss Ange Postecoglou has spoken up in favour of VAR on multiple occasions this season.

Back in October, he said in a pre-match press conference: “VAR is inevitable, it will happen everywhere.

“When it comes in you embrace it, you understand there will still be some issues because that’s been consistent worldwide. Ultimately if it gets the big decisions right I think it’s a positive.”

Then, after a missed red card in the Scottish Cup clash against Alloa, he stated [Scottish Sun]: “The game here is getting a global reach now — and I don’t think people want to tune in and see people getting hurt.

“They want to tune in and see exciting football, so it falls on everyone to protect the image of the game. If you have VAR, those sorts of incidents are dealt with pretty quickly now. And you see fewer of them because players know they can’t escape that anymore.

“Here we obviously don’t have VAR, but it’s not just referees, because they can sometimes miss things. There are linesmen, fourth officials, who are also part of the game, and their role is to protect that environment so we all see what we want to see — and that is football being played.”

As we’ve stated many times on the website, VAR isn’t a magic fix for bad refereeing. That was never more apparent than yesterday at Hampden when Bobby Madden was woeful.

However, it could prove to be a helpful tool to avoid the most glaring of errors.

Debate will continue regardless. As we’ve seen in England, it isn’t going to silence the arguments on decisions.

We’ll of course have news on the outcome tomorrow when the vote occurs.

In other news, Yet another former pro slates Bobby Madden’s Celtic showing; flags up missed red card.