Report: Celtic set for VAR vote in early 2022 during season of shoddy refereeing

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Celtic and the rest of the Scottish Premiership are set to vote on VAR in February, in a season full of controversial refereeing decisions.

According to the Daily Mail, top-flight clubs have been offered a monumental February vote. Clubs in the lower reaches of the SPFL will have VAR paid for by Premiership outfits, in order to have consistency across the footballing pyramid.

The Daily Mail state that implementation of VAR is likely to take place after the 2022 World Cup.

It comes after yet another week of criticism for referees around the top-flight. Stephen Glass was left fuming after a questionable penalty call for Rangers against Aberdeen. There was also spot-kick drama in the game between Motherwell and St Mirren [Herald].

With top leagues in Europe and across the world implementing VAR in recent years, it’s a wonder as to why it’s not made it to Scotland yet. Without full-time referees, the standard of officiating in Scotland is regularly met with criticism.

Funnily enough, Chris Sutton has said he’s not in favour of VAR. Not because of the technology itself, but the competence of those who would be using it.

John Hartson, meanwhile, criticised referees this week for current and more historic examples of questionable refereeing in favour of Rangers.

Would Celtic and Scottish Premiership clubs benefit from VAR? It’s better than the status quo, at least

The arguments for and against VAR are well-covered. In England, its introduction was shambolic. Clearly, its introduction in a league set-up is something that takes a while to get right.

But in major tournaments at both club and international level, it’s had massive advantages. As good as a lot of FIFA referees are, they can’t see everything all of the time. Not even with two assistants and a fourth official.

Yes, you could argue that Video Assistant Referees would take away some of the drama from the game. Or, that the weird gap between a goal being scored and celebrated, then the VAR check, ruins the atmosphere to a degree.

But really, those feel like small problems when the advantage is getting refereeing decisions right.

Celtic are presumably in favour of bringing VAR to the Scottish Premiership. At least, we hope so.

Any improvement in the standards would surely be welcomed after another season of questionable calls across the league.

Read more: How Celtic man Joe Hart reacted to praise from teammates after vital Hibs saves