Scottish Premiership set to utilize VAR next season after pivotal vote

Despite the fact that the system is only in place in the top division, all 42 Scottish Professional Football League teams voted in favor of the plan by e-mail on Tuesday. 

The system will be adopted after the World Cup in Qatar in December, with

teams paying a sliding scale of £1.2 million every season. 

In January and February of next year, VAR will be used in the

semi-finals and final, with more conversations planned about its usage in earlier stages in future seasons.

A minimum of six manned cams will be present at each match to help a team of video assistance referees who are all active or recently retired Category 1 referees. 

Neil Doncaster

, chief executive of the SPFL, said:

"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 principle of VAR was supported by clubs, players, coaches, and match officials.

"The benefits of VAR are clear and with the commitment of the Scottish FA, SPFL and now the approval of the league's 42 member clubs, we can now look forward to continuing the implementation process with a view to VAR being a key part of Scottish football's future."

In recent weeks, a number of VAR testing have taken place during junior fixtures, and the Scottish FA's head of refereeing operations

Crawford Allan

has previously stated that his officials are far ahead of schedule in their procedures.

"From a refereeing perspective, whenever VAR comes in we will be ready," he told 

Sky Sports News.

"We've been doing our training, and since December, we are actually slightly ahead of where we thought we would be.

"In terms of key decision-making, referees get on average 92 or 93 percent of the key decisions correct and it's been proven that VAR takes that up to 99 percent.

"You're never going to get the 100 and football will always be about opinions, but that 99, I'm sure we'd all agree, is better than the 92 or 93 percent at the moment."

Despite the fact that VAR is only utilized in the top division, the general assembly of all 42 SPFL teams was called to vote. 

Several Premiership teams have already expressed their support for the proposal, but the resolution was only formally carried out on Tuesday when all but one

club voted in favor. 

A minimum of 75% of Premiership and Championship teams, plus three-quarters of League One and Two sides combined, were necessary.

VAR is projected to cost roughly £1.2 million every season, with Premiership teams paying a portion of the cost based on their final league place. 

The Premiership champions will get over £195k every season, with the 12th team receiving around £67k on a declining basis. 

The SFA, on the other hand, will be responsible for formal training, with Allan stating that devoting cash for VAR should be viewed as an investment rather than an expense.

"Cost is an interesting one. If I was moving Scottish football forward - and I am part of the football family - I'd like to think of it as an investment in Scottish football rather than a cost," he said.

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