VAR to be introduced to Scottish Premiership in middle of 2022-23 season

By Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter | 19 April 2022

Video Assistant Referees (VAR) will be introduced in the Scottish Premiership from the middle of the 2022-23 season, following a vote by all 42 SPFL clubs.

Video Assistant Referees (VAR) will be introduced in the Scottish Premiership from the middle of the 2022-23 season.

A 75% backing from clubs competing in the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two was required for the technology to be implemented in the top flight, and all 42 clubs have now voted in favour of the move following a meeting on Tuesday.

A full launch of VAR will take place in December this year, following the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the £1.2m yearly cost for the technology will be financed by the 12 Premiership clubs on a sliding scale, with the league winners paying around £195,000 and the 12th-placed side paying around £67,000.

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."

The SPFL have also revealed that they intend to use VAR in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals and final in January and February 2023.