Every time refereeing controversy flares up in Scotland, the same solutions get punted about: bring in officials from outside the country, or scrap VAR and go back to the old ways. I get why folk reach for it, because everyone’s fed up, but it’s worth asking what either move actually changes.

If you parachuted somebody in from elsewhere, what exactly are they “revolutionising”? The rules are still the rules. The pool of match officials is still the same group working week to week. You don’t suddenly get a different football culture overnight just because the person overseeing it has a different accent or a different badge on their CV.

Looking down south doesn’t provide an easy answer

We’re constantly told England has it sorted, but even there the noise never stops. Over the last few days there’s been talk of a panel of ex-players finding 13 VAR errors this season, and that it’s supposedly up. On top of that, there were also decisions that VAR didn’t send the referee back to have another look at, which is basically the bit that’s meant to tidy up the obvious stuff.

That’s not to say “England are worse so we should accept it” - far from it. It’s more that VAR, and the people using VAR, are still fallible. The technology doesn’t remove argument. It just changes the argument.

VAR vs no VAR: the football isn’t cleaner either way

There’s also the point that if you bin VAR completely, you’re accepting fewer correct decisions overall. People can argue about the exact numbers, but the general principle is hard to deny: video review will correct some mistakes you’d otherwise be stuck with. That’s why every league that adopts it ends up sticking with it, even while moaning about it.

So for me the bigger issue isn’t “does VAR get some calls wrong?” because of course it does. The bigger issue is the time it takes. The dead air. The standing about. Players cooling down, crowds losing the moment, everyone waiting on a faraway conversation we can’t hear.

Speed and transparency are the real fixes

If the aim is to improve the experience, it’s got to be about quicker decisions and clearer communication. If something is genuinely clear and obvious, it shouldn’t take an age. If it isn’t clear, then we’re into subjective territory and all you’re doing is re-refereeing the match in slow motion.

That’s the frustration Rangers fans feel as much as anyone: we can live with football being messy, because it always has been. What’s harder to take is the game stopping for long spells, only for the outcome to still feel like a coin toss.

Written by Angus1812: 14 January 2026

Tags: squad