Celtic Attended The Vote On VAR Today. We’ll Soon Find Out Who Really Supports It.

Celtic attended the SPFL meeting on VAR today. We are going to find out, very soon, whose public posturing is honest and who has been lying to the rest of the game. We want this technology. Ibrox has publicly claimed that it does.

Other clubs have been whining about decisions and officials for a long, long time. Are they ready to put their votes behind reform?

We are about to find out. I suspect a lot of club fans will be shocked when they find out who isn’t actually in favour of these changes after all.

There is a lot of disinformation out there on this subject, a lot of club’s virtue signalling but who don’t want to actually pay the costs. There might even be some who don’t really want an additional level of refereeing.

Celtic most definitely does want these changes.

We believe that technology can solve a lot of the issues which have plagued our game, and I know there are varying levels of concern over certain officials. VAR will not solve all of these problems but it will give some of these officials no place to hide when it comes to key moments which right now they can gloss over.

I understand that the financial pressures are worrying some clubs.

I know, too, though that others understand that clubs like Celtic, who play attacking football will be more likely to benefit from this technology than sides who play more defensively and have more opportunities to make punishable mistakes.

The kind of aggression some clubs adopt will also be punished harshly if referees have more opportunities to scrutinise violent challenges. They might not be terribly keen on their “playing style” by subjected to an added level of scrutiny either.

And of course we suspect that certain officials aren’t going to be terribly pleased at being “second guessed” or overruled by technology. Especially when that technology will make it impossible for them to allow some of what they do and have.

All of them are about to be put on the spot.

The game needs this, and those who would try to prevent its implementation will have to explain their thinking. For some of them, that is not going to be easy to do, especially in light of what they’ve told their fans.