I have a slightly embarrassing admission to make - for several years now I've been an advocate of VAR in Scottish football. I know, it's a shocker now more than ever, but let me explain.
The idea of using video technology to assist referees in their decision-making always felt like it should be an idea that would work. Yes, there's been opposition to bringing it in - but let's face it, there's always resistance to change in this thrawn, conservative with a small c nation of ours. After all, look at sports like tennis and rugby union where technology has helped get big calls right fairly seamlessly. Surely calling match-defining decisions correctly is in the spirit of the finest Corinthian standards and who wants to be King Kanute, raging against an inevitable tide of progress?
That said, of course, football is a different beast. It's the national sport, so much so that everything else pales into irrelevance - maybe national obsession is a more apt description. As well as more eyeballs on the game itself, there is more subjectivity in the rules than elsewhere. It was always going to be more complex to make VAR work in football - but surely it wouldn't be beyond the ken of man. Besides, four comforting words allowed me to put aside any lingering doubts - 'clear and obvious error'.
This refereeing phraseology couldn't be more straightforward. VAR would be used in the kind of awful miscarriages of justice that lead, in the case of Scotland, to weeks of furious analysis and debate. This is a country after all where offside calls from nearly 30 years ago will still be brought up in pubs, social media and football phone-ins alike as if they occurred yesterday. Surely, ending this nonsense and the associated conspiracy theories that inevitably follow would be good for the game? I thought so and as such I've been an exponent for change throughout VAR's implementation, first in European competition then in our domestic game.
In the intervening months, there have been many incidents where this position has been acutely tested. Many decisions have been difficult to comprehend, let alone defend, not least the zero-tolerance interpretation of handball laws that bemused and baffled everyone. Teething problems I told myself, human error mixed with poor IFAB wording had created a perfect storm that would have to be navigated through to less choppy waters.
Eventually, though, you have to look at the body of evidence and face the truth. VAR's adoption simply isn't working and has ultimately been detrimental to the game. Fans are often left in stadiums scratching their heads and wondering what's going on, often for minutes at a time. Players don't celebrate in the moment as they used to, looking first at the referee for a thumbs up that each goal review is finished without finding fault. As such, that wonderful sense of relief and joy that washes over a stadium when a goal is scored is significantly tempered.
My Damascene conversion has been in the post for a while but finally came, as you may be able to predict, during Scotland's Euro 2024 qualifier against Spain. McTominay's rip-roaring free-kick sailing into the top corner in a nerve-shredding match should have been a moment of pure joy. Think McFadden in Paris or Gemmill in 1978. When it was chalked off, for reasons that are still somewhat murky and certainly lacking the 'clear and obvious' criteria, there was simply no desire left to continue a defence of the indefensible. The joy-sponge effect of VAR had been brought home in the most graphic, gut-wrenching way. All the criticisms I'd hear from others, the hobbling of celebrations and the fussy focus on rules rather than the flow of the game itself, suddenly came into sharp focus. I'd listened to the naysayers but hadn't heard. Now the noise was deafening, and it had finally penetrated. This can't be what football is about.
Of course, it's all very well to have changed my mind but what can be done? Pandora's box is, after all, very much open. Of the 30 major European Leagues, only Sweden remains a defiant VAR holdout. If Scotland was to reject its further use in the SPFL, we'd still have to deal with it in European games and international fixtures. The answer is bigger than our little country's top flight. As the Premier League have shown recently, where the fallout from Liverpool's obviously onside goal scored by Luis Diaz against Spurs has barely subsided, problems with VAR go beyond borders. It's international.
Surely the answer remains in the original idea - fixing 'clear and obvious' errors. If we can get back to that concept, rather than a seemingly ever-expanding over-reach, then maybe VAR can be saved in some, less intrusive, form.
Shaping the laws of the game is something few can lay a claim to. As a member of the International Football Association Board [IFAB], Scotland has a significant voice at the table alongside the other home nations. We must use that privilege. IFAB's annual general meeting will be held in March 2024 and it's the perfect time to make a stand. VAR must be reigned in or, however unlikely, booted into touch. As that wonderful, painful Scott McTominay moment showed so clearly, it has already rendered the beauty in the beautiful game less vivid. It's time to demand change.
