Former Scottish referee Hugh Dallas has described the way that Celtic have been adversely impacted by the VAR. The former whistleblower said that the Scottish Champions are uniquely impacted by the stop-start nature of the technology.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Dallas pinpointed that Celtic’s style of play has been impacted by the way that officials have to check potential issues.
“I’ve not got the experience these guys have had with playing, but within the first month that it was introduced I all of a sudden noticed how it affected Celtic.
“Because when Celtic restart play from a goal kick they get the ball thrown to them quickly, it’s down and it’s away. They can’t do that now.
“When the ball goes out of play they will say ‘check, wait, wait, delay the restart, delay, delay deal, ok we can go’. All of a sudden that spontaneity was gone.
“I just found as a non-football knowledge that changed one team.”
VAR is often criticised but the Cup Final shows how it can be used to check incidents that may have been missed by the match officials on the park.
Certainly in Ange’s time at the club, Celtic would start quickly and get the ball back into play as soon as they could to continue attacking. This has been impacted somewhat by VAR but not hugely given that most checks and cleared in the time it takes to get the ball and get started.