Video Assistance Referee (VAR)

Details

Ref: Video Assistance Referee
aka: VAR
Dates: Started in Football in 2018 (World Cup); Started in 2022 in domestic football in Scotland
First Use in a Celtic Game (Friendly): FC St Gallen (Switzerland) 0-0 Celtic, 2 Jul 2019, Friendly
First Use in a Celtic Game (Competitive): FC Copenhagen 1-1 Celtic, 20 Feb 2020, UEFA Cup
First Use in a Celtic Game at Celtic Park: Celtic 1-3 Copenhagen, 27 Feb 2020, UEFA Cup
First Use in a Celtic Game (Domestic): Heart of Midlothian 3-4 Celtic, 22 Oct 2022, SP

Summary

“VAR doesn’t miss anything by the looks of it – especially with us.”
Ange Postecoglou (March 2023)

After its mostly successful introduction and application in the 2018 World Cup, the question was when it would finally be applied in club football.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers had called for its introduction, and there were few who would have disagreed at the top end of the game. However, there was a slow delayed introduction of the technology into the game across the leagues in the UK, admittedly partly due to cost as much as all else.

First Use of VAR in a Celtic match

Celtic’s first experience of VAR was in a pre-season friendly in Switzerland, a nil-nil draw with St Gallen in July 2019. There were two incidents. Firstly, Celtic’s first VAR incident came when Celtic defender Tony Ralston’s long range shot was ultimately ruled to have been handled inside the box. Celtic were duly awarded a penalty, but then in true Celtic style striker Edouard stepped up and this spot kick was pushed onto the post by the keeper, so it was a miss. Later on centre-half Simunovic was sent off for a high boot, with VAR rearing its head once again to inform the referee’s decision.

This was actually the first time VAR was ever used in a game for any Scottish sides, and notably came as the system was coming under a lot of scrutiny & criticism at the Women’s World Cup (2019) which saw a number of contentious VAR decisions & usages, and then the EPL decided to utilise the system ahead of all others (including the Champions League). The initial experiment in the EPL was mostly a shambles, with repeated criticism of decisions made.

One issue that arose, an unintended consequence was that decisions were more accurate which had a double edged impact, in particular on offsides where even offsides by marginal amounts were called when before it would have been understandably & fairly deemed to be on line.

However, the system generally settled in for the EPL sides, with the authorities taking lessons from usage elsewhere.

First uses in Celtic competition games

The first Celtic match in a major tournament in which VAR was on hand for use was in February 2020 in the UEFA Cup KO stages, with Celtic playing FC Copenhagen away (first leg). First ever use of VAR for Celtic in a match goes against Celtic. Penalty given to Copenhagen. Celtic became the first Scottish side ever to be sanctioned by a VAR decision during their 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Europa League last 32 tie.

Celtic got its first VAR decision in its favour (in a competitive match) in what was the first ever match with VAR employed at Celtic Park, when Celtic won a penalty through a VAR ruling on a handball but still lost in a 3-1 defeat to Copenhagen in the UEFA Cup.

Domestic competitions

In April 2022, VAR was voted in by SPFL clubs to be introduced to the Scottish Premiership. After the disgraceful performance by referee Madden in the Scottish Cup game v Sevco two days beforehand it was a little ironic. Only one side out of 42 voted against! No goal line technology. VAR initial cost of £1.2m per season to be met by the 12 clubs on a sliding scale. System was to be introduced after World Cup in December, but was rushed forward to October 2022.

The First Celtic Match with VAR in Scotland

The first match at Celtic Park with VAR in usage was on 22 October 2022, with Celtic hosting Hearts in the league, in a very hard fought 4-3 victory BUT the introduction of VAR was unsurprisingly to be explosive

In even just the first weekend of games in Scotland, there were ‘errors’ & questionable decision making, little more so than at Celtic at the live away match v Hearts being the inaugural match under the new regulations for Celtic.

If anyone genuinely thought VAR would assist Celtic against bias from referees, this match indicated otherwise. For a start, the first assistant VAR official for a Celtic game was Stephen McLean who is the brother of a former Sevco player!

The ‘poor’/questionable decisions in that first game by the referees (onfield & VAR) included:

1 stonewall penalty denied (definite unarguable handball),
1 goal chopped off for a foul that never was (Ralston goal),
1 goal chopped off for an offside that only VAR could have likely ruled offside (Abada),
Game delayed as often as possible (around 10 minutes),
It took the referees around 5 mins to rule for a Hearts penalty but the Celtic non-penalty was over-ruled in seconds without much of a review (some have even bizarrely analysed the Celtic non-penalty incident and claimed it shouldn’t have been given!),
Another Hearts penalty was scored but retaken after VAR review as player from rebound was offside but apparently some encroachment into the box,
Around 5-6 VAR stoppages, most against Celtic.

It turned into a pivotal match for the season, with Celtic never stopping until the last moment. Ex-Celtic John Hartson quipped in the post-match analysis:

“Celtic had to beat two teams here today, they had to beat Hearts and they had to beat the VAR team…Some bizarre VAR decisions today.’

Elsewhere, Sevco who were losing one nil at home to Livingston, only for the VAR assistant to interrupt and direct a yellow card to be converted to a red to send off a Livingston player. Down to ten men late on, Sevco equalised to reduce the blushes but very questionable decision. Thankfully their draw (despite around 14 minutes of added time!) meant they lost ground to Celtic in the league title race. It was a travesty for Livingston who up until that equaliser were on their way to their first ever victory at Ibrox.

As Harry Brady of Celtic Underground podcast put it succinctly:

“Biggest lesson from today is that s**** refs are still s**** no matter how much technology they get.”

Celtic’s first VAR review in their favour came in the following game, 3-0 win v Livingston (Oct 2022). Hapless referee Willie Collum missed a handball in the box, which he was referred to review by VAR officials, and Celtic were rightly awarded a penalty. Giakoumakis duly missed the penalty!

It turned out the VAR officials were using only around six cameras to capture the full information to opine on decisions, as against around 18 in games in the EPL. Totally inadequate, but the authorities were claiming success!

Unsurprisingly, in the first Celtic v Sevco derby with VAR in force (2-2 at Ibrox, Jan 2023), there was a penalty given to Sevco which many argued should NOT have been a penalty, and another NOT given to Celtic when it was a clear handball and penalty to Celtic. Curiously neither incident was referred to the VAR to adjudge. Another potential penalty incident for Celtic was referred to VAR but correctly was ruled to not be a penalty in that case. As the final result was 2-2, and Celtic were already 9pts ahead in the league, there was less of furore made than would have been, but still VAR was a shambles.

That first season of VAR saw many very questionable decisions, and notably Sevco had NOT conceded penalty in the league for over a year now! Former Celtic striker Andy Walker in April 2023 claimed he heard a VAR official advising a referee to “take the easy way out” while covering a Scottish Premiership match for Sky Sports.

We could list further incidents, but since then, the system had bedded in, albeit still with various incidents, admittedly some in Celtic favour and against. It’s now a set part of the football matchday experience across the board.

Quotes

“Celtic had to beat two teams here today, they had to beat Hearts and they had to beat the VAR team… Some bizarre VAR decisions today.’
Ex-Celt John Hartson (Oct 2022)

“I keep hearing opposition managers saying we get everything. The only penalties we’ve taken so far are at training. A whole circus around VAR. Look mate I’d much prefer VAR wasn’t involved. A lot of standing about. I just wish they’d make decisions earlier”.
Ange Postecoglou (Oct 2022)

2018

Video Assistance Referee (VAR) - The Celtic Wiki

Celtic boss Neil Lennon explains what went wrong and reacts to VAR decision

Stephen Halliday

Published: 20:52 Thursday 20 February 2020
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/celtic-boss-neil-lennon-explains-what-went-wrong-and-reacts-to-var-decision-1-5093731
Neil Lennon hailed Fraser Forster’s penalty save which spared Celtic from what their manager believed would have been an unjust defeat in Copenhagen.

Lennon had no complaints with the award of a 79th minute penalty to the Danish side as Celtic became the first Scottish side ever to be sanctioned by a VAR decision during their 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Europa League last 32 tie.

Ryan Christie was booked for the handball incident which saw the penalty given and will miss the second leg in Glasgow next week.

Forster made a stunning save to keep out Jens Stage’s spot-kick and ensure Celtic remain firm favourites to reach the last 16.

“Fraser is brilliant and that’s down to the work he does with our goalie coach Stevie Woods behind the scenes,” said Lennon.

“I have no real complaint about the penalty, the ball did come off Ryan’s arm in an unnatural position if you want to call it that. But credit to Fraser, he’s done brilliantly with a magnificent save.

“It would have been really harsh on us if we’d lost the game with the amount of chances we had, especially in the first half. But we have the away goal so the tie is set up nicely for going back to Glasgow.

“I think most people would have taken that before the game. It was a partisan crowd, a difficult atmosphere to play in, it’s loud. I thought in the main the players handled it pretty well, just in the last 20 minutes they had to dig in, dig deep and show some resilience.”

In addition to Christie’s suspension, Celtic also suffered a blow when captain Scott Brown limed off with a calf injury. He is doubtful for Sunday’s league game against Kilmarnock and the full extent of the damage will be assessed on Friday.

“We’ll have to see how he is but, in the main, we are pleased with the outcome tonight,” said Lennon.

“We had good control of the first half and going in 1-0 up at half-time I thought we could have been maybe two or three up. We gave away a poor goal from our point of view and it gave Copenhagen a huge lift psychologically. But on the counterattack we had some great chances in the second half as well so I’m disappointed we haven’t come away with more goals.”

Sky Sports pundit claims he heard VAR advising Scottish referee to ‘take easy way out’

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/sky-sports-pundit-claims-he-heard-var-advising-scottish-referee-to-take-easy-way-out-4093805
Former Celtic striker Andy Walker has claimed he heard a VAR official advising a referee to “take the easy way out” while covering a Scottish Premiership match for Sky Sports.

Matthew Elder
By Matthew Elder
Published 5th Apr 2023, 13:58 BST
Updated 5th Apr 2023, 13:58 BST
Comment
The video assistant referee technology has courted controversary since its introduction to the top flight in October with numerous contentious decisions coming under scrutiny on a near weekly basis.

Walker revealed that he and his fellow pundits are able to listen to the communications coming from VAR headquarters while on Sky Sports duty as he lifted the lid on a particular discussion that left him concerned.

Speaking to NewsSlotsKlosh, Walker said: “Working with Sky I have the option of listening to VAR. To be absolutely clear I hear the video assistant referee – not the referee on the pitch.

“I have a concern. I won’t mention any names and I won’t name the teams involved but there was an instance where a couple of things happened in the space of a second or two. And I heard the VAR say ‘the easiest way out of this, is if it’s offside’.

“That to me is really poor language. There should be no idea that we get an easy way out. You have to look at what’s happening on the pitch and apply the laws of the game – don’t look for the easy way out.

“That’s not good enough. It’s awful. I couldn’t believe what I was listening to. I’m not going to mention any names and I’m not going to mention the game. But that kind of language makes me feel that the people operating VAR are obviously not feeling the atmosphere because they are not at the ground.