Former Premier League referee appointed as Scottish FA’s new VAR manager

Former Premier League referee Jon Moss becomes Scotland’s first VAR manager.

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The Scottish Football Association appoints former Premier League referee Jon Moss as their first ever VAR manager, wishing to ensure greater transparency.

VAR was introduced to the Scottish Premiership back in 2022, intended to be used as a tool to assist officials with their decision making on the pitch.

However, the technology has largely been criticised by fans, with checks causing significant delays to games and often resulting in controversial decisions being made.

In an effort to improve the delivery of VAR, the SFA’s head of refereeing, Willie Collum, created Moss’ new role after taking over from Crawford Allan.

Moss refereed more than 250 games during his officiating career, taking charge of Arsenal’s 2015 FA Cup win over Aston Villa among other significant finals.

Despite retiring in 2022 – after working as an elite referee manager with Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – the opportunity to take a leadership role in overseeing VAR will see Moss return to football.

"I’m really excited to work with Willie and the team to evolve the implementation of VAR in Scottish football," said Moss told BBC Sport.

"In our conversations we agreed on the importance of the fundamentals of VAR: clarity, communication and transparency.

"We went through a similar process around the introduction of VAR in England - I was the referee in the first ever game that VAR intervened in the country - so I’ve seen first-hand what has worked and what needed to change, both as a referee and in my role within PGMOL.”

Collum added that, with Moss’ experience, VAR should make become a more “efficient” and “less intrusive” feature in Scottish football.