VAR: Scottish Premiership aims to have technology in place after World Cup finals

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VAR has already been used at Hampden Park for international games

VAR is highly unlikely to be introduced in Scotland in time for next season - but the country's referees are trying "to speed it along".

It could be implemented after the break for next year's Qatar World Cup finals, which finish on 18 December.

The 42 senior clubs will vote on its introduction to the Premiership at a general meeting in February.

"Our desire is to bring it in as early as we can," said Scottish FA head of referee operations Crawford Allan.

"There's not one referee that I've spoken to that doesn't want it. We're doing what we can in the background to try to speed it along. It's going to take a while."

A proposal will be put before the clubs at next year's general meeting, but costs will be borne by the top-flight clubs - with suggestions that each would pay between £60,000 and £80,000 per season.

Should there be agreement, it will take around 12 months for officials to get the system in place, as mandated by Fifa.

The Scottish FA has offered to underwrite the training costs for match officials and Dundee United head coach Thomas Courts revealed on Friday he had been impressed by the governing body's "clear, robust" plans after attending a presentation.

Premiership club are said to be "overwhelmingly positive" about the idea and that was emphasised by comments made by Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Dundee counterpart James McPake ahead of Saturday's games.

The question of VAR raised its head again this week after a controversial winning goal by Kyogo Furuhashi for Celtic against Hearts on Thursday.

Allan says "VAR's there to fix clear and obvious errors", telling BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound: "You're not trying to prove a decision was correct, you're trying to say, 'was the decision clearly wrong?'

"VAR will be there to help with the big decisions, the factual ones and the ones that are clearly wrong."