Q: Can I ask you about VAR? St. Mirren and Dundee United have come out and said that there needs to be a bit of reform to get rid of the inconsistencies with it, is that something you would be welcome and what’s your view of it?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, I think there’s a number of things that fit around it, you know, it was clearly a funding issue in terms of maybe not having their best system, you know, that’s in place and that’s financial and everyone would maybe love a big house but if you can’t afford it then you can’t get it, you know, so then you have to adapt and deal with that. So we’ve got numbers of little issues around that aspect and I think it’s probably the same with officiating as well. Stephen mentioned full-time referees and I’m totally in agreement with that but for that to happen you need funding and if you don’t have the funding then they can only be the best that they can be. So I understand the dilemmas in it.
VAR CHECK at For Park, Motherwell v Celtic, 2nd February 2025. Photo by Vagelis Georgariou
“The VAR as I said, it’s the best package that is available and I think on many, many occasions it has worked really, really well. We’ve certainly seen other moments of real good clarity from it and then other issues take a little bit longer maybe because you’d have quite the extra angles that you would need and again it all boils down to the funding I would say and there’s also the decision making within that.”
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