Dundee Utd head coach Courts impressed by SFA's 'clear, robust' plans for VAR use

Dundee United head coach Thomas Courts is impressed by the Scottish FA's "clear, robust" plans for the use of VAR after its potential benefits were highlighted in Hearts' loss to Celtic.

The technology would have cleared up whether Kyogo Furuhashi was offside when scoring the game's only goal.

SPFL clubs will vote early next year on introducing VAR, with Premiership sides said to be "overwhelmingly positive".

"I can identify with how they want to implement it," said Courts.

"The standard of refereeing in our games has been of a fine standard but they could also be helped by the appropriate VAR."

Courts attended a recent webinar on the system's pros and cons, presented by Howard Webb, the former Premier League referee who implemented VAR in the United States.

"I was the only manager on it, I don't know if it was an open invitation," he added.

"I was quite impressed by the SFA in terms of how they plan to implement it, the parameters in which VAR will be involved.

"I left with a high degree of confidence that it is only going to be critical match-defining situations and that it will be a really good acquisition for the league.

"They want to stay away from the minutia and really focus on match-defining situations, offside, goals, whether the ball is across the line, penalty kicks etc.

"I left thinking that over the course of the season there would be greater probability that the goals scored were deserved and I think that is all you can expect as a manager."

All 42 clubs in the top four divisions will vote in a ballot mooted for late February and the Scottish FA has offered to underwrite the training costs for match officials.

The 12 Premiership clubs will share the costs - each paying £60,000 to £80,000 per season - of running VAR across the four tiers.

Both Courts and Dundee counterpart James McPake feel that, had VAR been in place this this season, they would have benefited in getting decisions against their teams overturned.

McPake revealed Dundee have an analyst at every game who can tell him "within seconds" whether calls are correct.

But he praised the openness of head of refereeing Crawford Allan and his officials in addressing controversial decisions.

"We had an incident where we should have been given a penalty and our analyst in the stands can tell us within a couple seconds, yes or no," said McPake.

"We have the benefit of that as managers. Then you get on to the fourth officials and end up with a red card.

"Most referees are very responsive and very good. As a young manager, they're helpful.

"Bobby Madden in particular, he sent me off against Rangers but I had half an hour on the phone with him, I wanted to apologise, and he gave me some pointers on why he had to send me off.

"Crawford's been great. If you have a problem and take it to him, he'll look at it and give an opinion. He'll either back his referee or say otherwise."