VAR in Scotland - one year on: Exclusive audio of incidents released to Sky Sports but has it been a success?

Scroll down for footage and audio that has never been broadcast as the SFA's head of referee operations Crawford Allan talks us through incidents involving Rangers, St Mirren, Hibernian, Celtic, Ross County and Motherwell from over the past year...

Sunday 22 October 2023 17:18, UK

One year on from its Scottish football debut, Sky Sports has been given unprecedented behind-the-scenes access at VAR HQ in Scotland to find out if the technology has been a success...

It was on October 21, 2022, that VAR was first used in a Scottish Premiership match as Hibernian took on St Johnstone at Easter Road.

A lot has happened in the 365 days that followed and while the Scottish FA's head of referee operations Crawford Allan says he is pleased with the journey his team are on — he believes things will continue to get better.

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«We can be continually improving our success rates,» he told Sky Sports. «Am I happy with the journey we're on? Yes. Do I think we can be better? Absolutely.

»Are we continuing to learn and communicate and hopefully prove the clarity to the stakeholders? It's something we're continuing to work on.

«There's a long way to go, but we'll continue learning. We'll never get somewhere where we're all happy, we never will, but generally yes, I'm happy with where we are at the end of year one.»

Greg Aitken — who is one of two dedicated VAR officials in Scotland — has revealed refs are continuing to learn and have even evolved processes after a major error in the Premier League after Liverpool's Luiz Diaz wrongly had a goal disallowed at Tottenham earlier this month.

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