The recent torrent of anti-Celtic moaning has made my mind up on VAR.

Myself, and a lot of Celtic fans, have probably gone running around on VAR as much as it is possible to do.

I know I have. I started out in support of the technology and in support of its use in Scottish football. Then, over time, I was poisoned against the idea by some of lamentable decisions that we have seen its operators make, decisions which are incomprehensible to most of us.

That is why I have flipped backwards and forwards on whether VAR is a good thing or a bad thing, and whether we should just do away with it completely.

I thought I had landed on a settled position on this: that our version of VAR was so low-rent, cheap and dumb that we would be as well abandoning it completely.

But I have learned something valuable in the last week, and I will not forget it.

I have now settled on a position from which I will not move, no matter what happens next.

The number of people in the media screaming for the end of VAR convinces me that we should keep it. Their rationale is so one-sided, and so clearly based on the fact that VAR consistently gives Celtic decisions, that there is no way I now want to see the end of it.

Last night, myself and Paulina were looking at some previous Celtic title wins, and obviously we wanted to look at 2008, as it is the closest comparison to the kind of comeback we have mounted so far, and which we will hopefully complete later today.

The Celtic fan video we watched highlighted the astonishing match between Rangers and Dundee United, after which Craig Levein had one of the most spectacular meltdowns in front of the cameras that any of us has ever witnessed.

I had forgotten the game that occasioned that meltdown, and the circumstances of it.

David Weir’s own goal was chopped off for offside, as though that is even possible. Noel Hunt was through on the goalkeeper, only to be bundled over in the box. No penalty. No red card. A United player was headbutted by Daniel Cousin. Another was punched in the face by Kirk Broadfoot.

It was no wonder that at the end of the match, Levein was so incensed that he made his infamous rant about how his side would have been as well not showing up, because the importance of the game was known to everybody at the Ibrox club, and there was no way any other outcome was going to be allowed.

Those decisions were so horrendous, and the video helpfully replayed them all for us, that it is almost inconceivable VAR could or would have ignored them.

Although that game is remembered as a particularly egregious example of Mike McCurry officiating, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

We all know there were many, many, many games like that involving various different clubs over the years. Decisions went in favour of Ibrox which were so scandalous they took your breath away.

In recent years, Celtic have been the beneficiaries of a lot of decisions, and the Ibrox club and their fans never tire of reminding us of them. Many of those decisions should have been spotted by the officials but somehow were not.

By the way, John Beaton is a prime culprit in a lot of those decisions that VAR had to later correct.

But that is the point.

There have been any number of them involving numerous Scottish officials who should have spotted things and did not, only for the VAR officials to say, “wait a minute, you missed that,” and correct the record.

VAR does not get everything right. But the most scandalous decisions no longer happen in quite the same way, because VAR makes sure of it.

Whatever your thoughts are on VAR, try to imagine Scottish football without it right now.

Try to imagine a game where some of these officials have free rein to do whatever they want, with no possibility of correcting their mistakes, no possibility of someone intervening and saying, “wait a second, you need to take another look at that.”

Try to imagine some of the games we have played over the last season. Try to imagine some of the games we have played since VAR was introduced. The number of times glaring mistakes have been made by officials and overturned by VAR is enormous.

I cannot imagine allowing these officials to have a free run of it, as McCurry and people like him had before.

I noticed that one of the people banging the drum against this decision was Bobby Madden.

It genuinely made me laugh to see that man speaking up for clubs who feel hard done by officials, when one of the most notorious sinners in the history of the Scottish game was Bobby Madden himself.

Bobby Madden has no business criticising anyone in the modern refereeing fraternity. The 2021 Ibrox derby, where he sent off Nir Bitton and allowed Alfredo Morelos to stay on the pitch, is up there with the worst performances many of us have ever seen.

His decision to leave Kemar Roofe on the pitch in the 2022 Scottish Cup semi-final was just as incomprehensible.

That game took place on 17 April. VAR was introduced in October of that year, too late, as it turned out, to help us in that particular football match.

But that is the point.

VAR’s introduction has helped prevent moments like that from going completely unpunished.

The number of people calling for VAR to be abolished is now pretty high, but when you look at the people in question, the familiar pattern asserts itself immediately.

We are talking about people like McCoist here. We are talking about people like Ryan Stevenson. We are talking about people who are not exactly Celtic-minded, and whose principal complaint is that we seem to get too many decisions.

I do not believe it is a coincidence that they are targeting VAR, which has been the great corrective here.

So you know what? I am sold.

I am all the way in.

This is what I want to see happen now: I want to see VAR strengthened. I want to see us get the best possible version of the technology that we can. But ultimately, I want VAR to remain.

It has made things better.

As hard as that is to believe sometimes, especially on days when decisions do not fall your way, the most disgusting decisions, the ones which otherwise would never have been corrected at all, are much rarer now.

Almost all of them generate debate because they are looked at over and over again. I do not think there is anything wrong with that. In fact, the number of people complaining about it, and the nature of those complaints, tells me all I need to know.

I have gone full circle on this.

I have gone round and round, but I have finally arrived at a place where I do not believe I am going to change my mind again.

When all these people who detest this club are speaking out against VAR and want it gone, that is all the reason for keeping it I will ever need.

At the centre of all their complaints is that it gives us far too much.

What they really mean is that we have something close to a level playing field now, and they cannot stand it.

A better version of VAR is needed.

Yes. We need smarter and more capable operators too.

Absolutely.

But this is what VAR was brought in to do.

At the moment, by and large, it is working.

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