Neil Doncaster reveals Rangers Champions League wish as he defends midseason VAR launch

Neil Doncaster has defended the decision to introduce VAR midway through the coming season.

The technology won’t come into play until December when the Scottish Premiership campaign resumes after the winter break.

That has led to some criticism with only fixtures in the second half of the 2022/23 season benefiting from any errors from officials being overturned.

But Doncaster, speaking as the fixtures for the new season were released, told Sky Sports: “A number of other leagues across Europe have also implemented VAR partway through a season, so I don’t think we are doing anything particularly radical by bringing it in partway through next season.

“We are not quite ready to launch at the start of the season but in partnership with the Scottish FA we are very hopeful VAR will launch partway through the season and hopefully achieve less controversy than perhaps we have seen in recent seasons.

“It’s a product of where we are. We only want to introduce VAR when we are ready to do so. I think it’s important.

“But it’s a difficult job the refs have so any support they can have I’m sure will be appreciated.

“We were keen not to be early adopters of this technology. We have seen some of the teething problems its introduction has caused in some other leagues.

“So we were keen to ensure that we took advantage of the learnings from those leagues before we implemented it in Scotland.”

Doncaster is hopeful Rangers can join Celtic in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2007/08.

He said: “That would be huge and it’s not merely from the point of view of the coefficient and making it easier for our clubs to qualify in future - there’s a huge financial boost to the entire game, the better our clubs do in Europe.