VAR in Scotland voted through as SPFL clubs agree timeline and cost-per-club

VAR will be implemented in Scottish football later next season after a majority of SPFL clubs voted in favour of the move during a Hampden meeting on Tuesday.

The use of video assistant referee technology will start in the cinch Premiership following the World Cup in December 2022, with top flight clubs set to share the cost, anticipated to be around £1.2m per season, on a proportional basis based on prize money for final league placing.

It means the Premiership winners face forking out £195k per season, with a sliding scale to the 12th club, which will pay around £67k.

The SPFL will use the same Hawkeye Innovations System currently used in the English Premier League with the introduction delayed until after the World Cup to allow for the necessary upgrades and installations at all Premiership stadia, including fibre.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “I’m very pleased that we received the necessary 75% votes in the cinch Premiership, the cinch Championship, and cinch Leagues 1 and 2, which enable us to forge ahead with VAR technology next season.

"The SPFL chose not to be an early adopter of VAR technology to allow time for teething issues to be ironed out by those leagues who adopted VAR early.

“I believe this was the right decision and that VAR will help referees to ensure tight decisions are more often the right ones and will support a higher standard and more consistent level of decision-making.

“Scottish referees are fully on-board with this innovation and have been overwhelmingly supportive about the introduction of VAR during our consultation process with our partners at the Scottish FA.”

Ian Maxwell, Scottish FA chief executive, added: “Throughout the consultation process we were encouraged that the