DATE: 11th December 2023
The Scottish Football Supporters Association ( SFSA) has now completed its second study into the impact of VAR on Scottish football. Our first survey, carried out during last year’s World Cup, produced pretty unequivocal results. At that time, VAR had only been in place for a few months but fans, in general, were not very happy with what they had seen up to that point. Now, a year after its introduction, the SFSA has revisited our original survey to see to what extent opinions have changed. To help inform the debate, we commissioned blogs for and against VAR. These received hundreds of hits on our website, indicating (as if we needed to be told) that VAR continues to be a hot topic for Scottish football fans.
Here’s a reminder of what we discovered a year ago:
91% of supporters said the length of time taken by VAR to make some decisions is an issue for them.
86% do not understand the law around handball regarding penalty decisions.
75% said that VAR has reduced their enjoyment of football matches.
74% said refereeing performances have worsened since the introduction of VAR.
56% would rather tolerate more incorrect decisions than tolerate the disruption to matches caused by VAR.
And here’s how opinions have changed since then:
95% of supporters said the length of time taken by VAR to make some decisions is an issue for them (an increase of 4%).
71% said they do not understand the law around handball regarding penalty decisions (a decrease of 15%).
86% said that VAR has reduced their enjoyment of football matches (an increase of 11%).
85% said refereeing performances have worsened since the introduction of VAR (an increase of 11%).
66% would rather tolerate more incorrect decisions than tolerate the disruption to matches caused by VAR (an increase of 10%).
Based on the 2,710 responses to our new questionnaire, it’s clear that the majority of fans still do not like VAR and believe it reduces their enjoyment of football.
It’s also clear – and mirrors what we hear from some referees – that supporters feel that refereeing performances have worsened since the introduction of VAR.
Fans being fans, it was perhaps no surprise that 62% believe that their team has not benefited from VAR. Only 4% believe their team has benefited from the introduction of VAR, with 4% unsure and 16% thinking it evens itself out.
Attitudes towards VAR have changed before and after its introduction. Before VAR was introduced, the numbers thinking it would improve enjoyment of the game were more or less the same as those thinking the opposite – 30% and 28% respectively. The biggest number (42%) wanted to wait and see. Having now “waited and seen,” the number who think it has actually improved their enjoyment is only 4%. This is a damning figure and, in our opinion, really should make the football authorities stop and think about what VAR is doing to fans’ enjoyment of football – and how they might change this.
Additional questions since the last survey
This year, we asked a number of new questions. The key findings are:
92% of fans want goal-line technology introduced.
80% of fans do not like the way Assistant Referees no longer flag immediately for offside.
70% think that match officials are now relying on VAR to make decisions for them.
74% want the handball law to revert to ‘only for deliberate handball.’
63% believe that fully-automated offside would be a significant improvement.
56% would scrap VAR in its entirety.
16% want VAR’s use to be extended in the interests of fairness to cover more than the immediate phase of play.
SFSA Board Advisor Alastair Blair said: “The results from this survey demonstrate clearly that Scottish football fans are not happy with the impact VAR has had on the game in the year since it was first introduced. In my view, VAR sucks the joy out of the game. Supporters spend their money to be lost in the moment of a goal being scored, but since the introduction of VAR that is no longer possible. For me, the most telling statistic is that two-thirds of fans would rather tolerate the errors that might come without VAR than put up with the interruptions that VAR introduces to the game. It is never a good idea for any industry to ignore the views of its customers so let’s see if the relevant authorities are prepared to listen to the overwhelmingly negative views of fans about VAR that this survey has clearly shown.”
