CELTIC manager Neil Lennon fears that introducing VAR to Scottish football will ‘open up a can of worms’ and may actually end up causing more problems than it solves.
Lennon is broadly in favour of VAR being brought into Scottish football, but he worries about how the technology will be implemented following a series of problems in the English Premier League so far this season.
Of particular concern to Lennon is the way it has been used in England to determine borderline offside decisions, and he is also concerned that it may remove the human element from the game.
And with far less money to invest in the technology in Scotland, Lennon thinks it may be difficult to get it to a level where the help it gives referees justifies the expense, never mind the other costs to the game itself.
“It will open up a can of worms up here I’m sure, one way or another,” Lennon said.
“You look at (Sadio) Mane’s goal against Watford the other week, it’s a goal.
“There was a goal chopped off earlier in the season for Sheffield United that happened in the first phase of play. It went on to the second phase and Sheffield United got a goal, and they’ve went all the way back to the first phase, where the guy’s foot is an inch offside. It’s ridiculous.
“I’d like to go back to daylight between players, absolutely. We want to see goals scored. All this about the armpit being offside, it’s nonsense.
“It takes away a lot of the human element, and you don’t want to take that away from the game because that’s what it’s all about.”
When asked if it would create more issues than it may solve in the Scottish game, Lennon said: “Probably. That’s my worry.
“It’s already causing contention in English football, and they have all the money and the facilities to deal with it.
“I don’t know how it’s working in other countries, but it’s certainly dominated a lot of talk down south, and it’s driving managers crazy down the road. Especially when the stakes are so high.
“Will it be a help to referees? Definitely, I think it will. How we work it though is another thing, because there’s been a lot of controversy over it in England.
“It’s got to the point where people think it’s spoiling the game, and certainly the offside decisions really need looked at.
“We’re talking millimetres, and I think that’s wrong in the human game.
“It’s about agreeing to it and then trying to implement it as well as we possibly can.”
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