There is an ongoing debate in Scottish football circles regarding the introduction of VAR. And a number of questionable decisions on the part of the officials has only added fuel to the fire in recent months. But longtime Celtic captain, Scott Brown, does not believe that the system should be introduced in Scotland anytime soon.
Rangers fans have been especially vocal about the issue following the last two Glasgow derbies, as they felt hard done by by the referees on both occasions. But after weighing up the pros and the cons, it is hard to justify its introduction as it is far from being a perfect system at this point of time.
As reported by the Irish Mirror, when asked about VAR, Scott Brown said:
“It’s killing the game, it’s killing the celebrations.
“You score a goal and you slowly walk back, you can’t go and celebrate and have that fun with the fans.
“Obviously we want the decisions to be right but it is the millimetres 20 seconds beforehand; is it a free-kick, is it a foul?
“It is killing the passion. As soon as a goal is scored the first thing I see is people looking up (at the screen) and hoping no-one has done anything in the last 20 seconds.
“It is killing the momentum. You have that momentum, you want to go pressing again but you sit for two or three minutes until someone upstairs makes a decision.”
VAR has caused huge controversy since its introduction in the English Premier League this season and has no doubt taken a lot of the fun out of the game. In fact it has caused more problems than it has solved with many pundits down South calling for it to be removed. And hopefully, the SFA will take a well though out decision instead of rushing into anything regarding the system.
