'There's no referee in the world who wouldn't support VAR'

One of Scotland's leading officials believes the introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) would limit "scandal" in Scottish football.

The Scottish FA and SPFL are investigating the possibility of using the technology in Scotland.

And Willie Collum, an elite category UEFA official, says it would limit controversy and player dissent.

"I think it would be easier for players to accept decisions," he said.

"What we're talking about is the controversy where everybody looking at a replay can see it's an error.

"It's a genuine error made by the referee, in perhaps a very difficult situation - that's then gone and we would hope it would end the scandal, so to speak."

A number of clubs have expressed concerns about the standards of refereeing this season, and the use of foreign officials has been considered to increase the pool of category one referees.

Collum is currently one of only two referees in Scotland trained to use video technology, and though he says the "intensive" nature of the training means it would take time to implement, he believes all of his colleagues would "throw their weight" behind its introduction.

"There's no doubt they're for VAR [Scottish referees]. I don't think there's any referee in the world who won't support VAR because it's about helping the referee to get that decision right," he told BBC Scotland.

"We would hope that we don't make any errors and we don't need to rely on it. But we know if mistakes happen, and we know they will happen, then we have a safety net there to fall back on."

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'Countries similar to Scotland are using it'

The cost of VAR has been considered a barrier to its introduction in Scotland.

Following a summit of top-flight managers and referees in January, SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said that Scottish football "can afford it" but it would be up to the clubs to foot the bill.

The SFA's head of refereeing John Fleming believes it can be done but acknowledges the pool of referees would need to increase for VAR to be used effectively across the Premiership, as it would require experienced officials to administer.

"The knock-on effect is you're taking the existing top referees to put them into a VAR position and a fourth official position which has a negative effect on the Championship, which has a knock-on effect into the First Division [League One] and it rolls down into the Second Division [League Two] and so on and so forth," he said.

"The objective for me is to develop a strategy where I have enough resource to feed the respective leagues."

"I know countries that are a similar size to Scotland, similar population, similar league set-ups, and I know these countries are using it, for example Romania and Slovenia," Fleming added.