VAR to be used in Scottish Premiership next season after clubs back plans

VAR technology will be introduced in Scotland’s top flight next season after plans were almost unanimously backed by clubs.

The video technology will be installed in every cinch Premiership ground over the coming months and is expected to be available to assist referees after the World Cup in December.

Scottish Professional Football League chief executive Neil Doncaster told Sky Sports: “It’s been a long process, that’s for sure. We have been working with our colleagues at the Scottish FA and clubs for some while.

“We chose not be early adopters of VAR technology, allowing some of the early problems with that technology to be ironed out.

“But we think now is the time to bring VAR into the cinch Premiership and we are very pleased that 41 out of 42 clubs agreed with that, and we will be implementing it at some point next season, post-World Cup.”

The estimated £1.2million annual cost of the system will be solely met by the 12 Premiership clubs, with each paying a proportion of their end-of-season prize money. The champions will pay about £195,000 per season, with the bottom club chipping in with about £67,000.

The league is trying to drive down the installation costs of more than £1million and welcomed a new grant from the Scottish Football Association.

Doncaster added: “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.”

Doncaster is confident that disruptions to games will