The Scottish Premiership, like many leagues in world football, has had its fair share of controversial refereeing decisions despite the introduction of VAR.
The groundbreaking refereeing technology was first introduced into the Premier League in 2019 and was later applied into the Scottish Premiership three years later in 2022.
The introduction of VAR was brought into the game to simplify the referees job in a bid to prevent clear and obvious errors, but has often been the subject of scrutiny from fans and players alike for disrupting the flow of the game and at times complicating the decision process for referees, leading to inconsistencies and mistakes from match day officials.
VAR’s place in the game divides opinion with many fans in the footballing world and many feel that there needs to be improvements made to the technology to benefit the standard of officiating, both in the Scottish Premiership and beyond.
With that in mind we take a look at a survey from Betway which studies the main changes that fans would like to see.
The study is based on the opinions of 1,000 fans and looks at the nine main suggestions for improvement.
1. Being able to hear the discussion between the VAR and the on-pitch referee
40% voted in favour of this change. Has worked successfully in other sports.
3. Applying a time limit to the amount of time referees have to make their decision
33% voted in favour of this change. A major criticism of VAR by fans has often been the stop and start nature that it brings to the game.
4. Improving the consistency of how VAR is used across other leagues & competitions
33% voted in favour of this change.