As the VAR debate rages on, how effective will it really be?

Now that VAR is going to be introduced in Scotland later this year, a lot of people are starting to question how effective it’s really going to be?

I’ll be honest – having a tendency to follow only Scottish football – I’ve never studied VAR in depth since it was introduced to the Premier League in England. 

I understand how it works. But what I wanted to understand better is how it is applied and how the rules around are interpreted.

Having properly studied them, I can now understand why John Hartson and Chris Sutton would have reservations about how it will be applied in Scotland.

Hartson is getting a lot of stick from Ibrox fans after his suggestion that English referees should be brought up from down south to operate VAR.

I’m inclined to agree with his suggestion, as it would be the perfect time to introduce reform to the refereeing system in Scotland.

It could be done under the auspices that the decision was made to aid Scottish referees in fully understanding VAR.

Looking at the rules of VAR and the FAQ’s relating to it, the first one that stood out to me was this:

““In testing, there was no unanimity. Different VARs came up with different outcomes.”

“But the VAR should not be asking, “Do I think it’s right or wrong?” The question is, “Is what the match officials have done a clear and obvious error?””

“There is a very high bar for that intervention.””

There are a few ways this can be interpreted, but what stands out to me most here is this, who exactly is going to be the Video Assistant Referee in a game here in Scotland?

Let’s just say, for arguments sake, Bobby Madden is the referee on the field. Andrew Dallas is the Video Assistant Referee, with two assistants assigned to him.

We are playing the Ibrox side and