Sutton’s VAR Worries Are Reasonable, But Celtic Fans Should Still Take Heart.

Big Chris Sutton was giving his view again on VAR earlier, and he seemed to suggest that his concerns, like those of so many other Celtic fans I’ve spoken to, rest on the simple fact that the same officials will be scrutinising the feeds.

He is correct, but whereas he worries that the same “mistakes” will continue haunting the sport, although he frames it as being an issue of competence.

I am not as concerned.

As I’ve said before, it is up to people like him and those in his profession to keep our officials honest.

Either VAR corrects some of the more scandalous “honest mistakes” before they have a chance to impact major results, or the serious questions will be asked about how officials, even with the benefits of video evidence, cannot make the right calls.

And slowly, but surely, we will weed out of our sport some of the more egregious pieces of bias. But this will only happen if we are even more vigilant than we are now and if the media finally steps up and does its job properly.

Sutton is part of the media landscape. It is partly his responsibility.

We know that people like Stewart and even the likes of English, who thrives on a good controversy, will highlight every decision that is gotten wrong once the new technology comes in. We know that referees will have less room to decide these things on their own unique “interpretation.”

I understand what he’s worried about.

The same concern has been expressed in the comments of the articles I’ve put up on this, and in the social media reaction.

A lot of our fans remain sceptical.

Things won’t change overnight, but refs will no longer be able to hide behind some of the excuses which they’ve traditionally used, about being “unsighted” or about having only a split second to react. Those fig-leafs will be snatched away.

We will still get bad decisions … but they will be increasingly hard, if not impossible, to defend or even to properly explain. And that will force the pace of change.

The game has not just been crying out for this, fans have been screaming out for it. In the absence of foreign refs this is as close to a game-changer as we’re going to get.

We need to get this technology implemented and part of the national conversation, and we need to do that soon. The sooner the better.