Referee chief Crawford Allan has told Scotland’s clubs that match officials are ready for VAR as soon as the SPFL gives them the green light.
And he insisted Premiership clubs should view financing the preferred Hawkeye system, at around £100,000 each, as an investment rather than a cost.
With criticism of officials’ decisions intensifying by the week, Scottish FA head of refereeing operations Allan admits his men in the middle are desperate for VAR to be introduced and revealed that 18 refs and 17 assistants have been training for it over the past 18 months.
He believes that a system which will have six cameras installed at every top flight ground - and has been passed by FIFA - will increase the ‘successful decision’ rate from its current 92 percent without VAR to 99 percent.
He said: “It’s ultimately over to the SPFL clubs to decide which model they want. I’ve got quite a degree of comfort (about it) as we’ve been engaging with them on an ongoing basis since last summer.
“The vibes we got last summer were strong enough for us to start this as we had a meeting with the Premiership clubs last September which was positive.
“We’re confident enough that something will happen, that VAR will come. That’s my personal view. They have all these options. We know the one we would like to look at but it’s up to them to decide.
“Investment, that’s a word I’ve used already. I think we look going forward in terms of Scottish football and where we currently are, if we stay in the status quo, the noise that we’re getting, the feedback, VAR for all intents and purposes is being used by the Press and the media already. We must invest in VAR going forward.
“If we don’t invest, then not only are we not investing in the domestic game, then we’re not investing in the international game.”
Allan also believes that Scottish referees are in danger of not being given high profile international and European clashes while the country does not have VAR.
He added: “We’ve been lucky to be at the forefront of European football, both from a club perspective over the years and from a match officials’ perspective.
"We’ve had referees in the latter stages of major tournaments and as it stands, we don’t have var in our domestic league, but if you look at appointments across UEFA, VAR is being utilised by Polish referees, Portuguese, Dutch and other guys.
“If we don’t invest, then not only are we not investing in the domestic game, then we’re not investing in the international game.”
And Allan insists that a six-camera VAR operation - the most likely option to be agreed by the clubs - will not be a watered down version of the real thing.
He said: “I can absolutely state that we’re not going to get a cut price model. We’re going to get a VAR that is signed off by Fifa and is approved and is globally recognised as full VAR That’s what we’re looking to implement in Scotland.
“As with any walk of life, there is a balancing act to be had. We’ve presented all these various options to the SPFL, in terms of from the bare minimum, which is four cameras, all the way up to the Champions League, which is 28 cameras.
“Even so, there is a perception that an error was made in the game at Ibrox last week ( Ryan Kent ’s disallowed goal against Borussia Dortmund). So, even with 18 cameras it can happen.
“Six cameras will cover the vast, vast majority of everything we need and get that balance. Will 12, 18 help? Yeah, possibly but somewhere in there the clubs need to make a decision as to what they want.”
