Scottish Cup VAR discrepancies branded a farce by het-up former ref as SFA accused of 'penny pinching'

A former ref has slammed the lack of VAR at all but one Scottish Cup game as a "farce."

Only Celtic vs Buckie Thistle on Sunday will give the referee a helping hand. Rangers travel to Dumbarton, Hearts are at Spartans and Hibs visit Forfar, where the technology isn't in place and the £10,000 to install it appears a sizeable ask for clubs who either don't have the facilities or money to install. It is in place at Livingston, Motherwell, Ross County and St Mirren, but isn't being used as that would also come at an extra cost.

Former top flight whistler Steve Conroy reckons it's incompetence to have different levels of officiating for games at the same stage of the same competition. And he's also taken aim at the SFA for only 3 of the 13 ties having fourth officials present, which he reckons is the governing body trying to save a few quid. “It’s a farce," he told Share Market Cap. "How on earth can you have different standards of officiating in the same round of the Scottish Cup.

“We saw it last season when Aberdeen were humbled in the Scottish Cup by Darvel as they had a perfectly good goal disallowed which would have been ratified by VAR. How is it possible that you have different rules in the same competition – it is sheer incompetence.

“You just know there is going to a be a decision in the St Mirren-Queen of the South game, for example., that goes against one of the sides and would have been overturned by VAR. If you can’t have Clydesdale House involved in all of the ties then don’t have it at all. Why not wait until the semi-finals and final? It’s baffling.

“The other galling aspect is that only three of the Saturday games have a fourth official – that’s ridiculous and smacks of penny pinching. In their rules the SFA