Celtic favourite Chris Sutton goes in on the SFA after latest “fiasco”

The Scottish FA have lurched from one refereeing crisis to another this season and, despite their best attempts, it’ll be hard to shake off the latest drama.

Aberdeen released a furious statement through the week to communicate their belief that the current VAR system in place for Scottish football is not fit for purpose.

The Dons feel aggrieved after a 0-0 draw against Livingston last week in which a marginal offside call was subject to VAR review. Unfortunately, the Hawkeye Technology failed and officials effectively guessed whether their goal should have been ruled out or not, rather than revert to the on-pitch decision.

Now the very existence of VAR in Scotland is being called into question and with the errors mounting – some of which have cost Celtic – serious decisions need to be made on a way forward.

Former Bhoys striker Chris Sutton fully backs Aberdeen’s stances and reckons the SFA have a crisis on their hands that they must address properly.

Chris Sutton on latest SFA VAR farce

The outspoken pundit said [Daily Record]: “It doesn’t look good for Scottish football. Likewise this Aberdeen VAR fiasco. That really is an unbelievable story and the SFA trying to go back and say they got it right, even though they guessed at the time, is some cheek.

“They simply couldn’t overturn that decision if the technology failed. If the Hawkeye was on the blink they they had to do it the old-fashioned way by letting the officials on the pitch make the call.

“You can’t then squint at a screen and then hope for the best. I’m fully behind Aberdeen’s stance as they had every right to be angry.

“If that happened in Sunday’s derby we would have needed to call in the UN this week. This was a result that could have massive ramifications to the final standings in the league – and it could cost clubs serious cash. The SFA are really going to need to have a long look about how they are running VAR because the mistakes are piling up.

“It’s a shame to have this pitch and VAR nonsense on the back of last weekend, where Scottish Football was shown in the best possible light.”

VAR becoming increasingly unpopular

Other leagues have more resources and can implement a higher standard of VAR Technology but the version in place for the Scottish Premiership is poor and, increasingly, not worth the hassle.

It would be difficult to scrap at this point but there’s swelling opinion that it is not a good thing for the Game here, taking into account the match experience and that way it is being utilised by SFA officials.

Clubs need to seriously think about whether it’s worth the outlay every season. At the very least, they need to put pressure on the SFA to communicate how it plans to make it a better system moving forward.

Transparency is key and the culture needs to change at Hampden, where decision-makers seem intent on defensiveness and making poor justifications for failures.

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