Premiership boss makes bold statement after VAR decisions impacting Hearts, Hibs and league rivals

VAR decisions have gone against Hearts and Hibs this season, with a Premiership boss far from happy.

VAR has impacted Hearts and Hibs this season

A Premiership boss has called for VAR to be binned after the latest controversy arose around the refereeing tech.

10 decisions since February have been deemed to be made incorrectly after intervention from Clydesdale House. That takes the total to 26 for the season, with Hearts and Hibs impacted in the most recent admissions.

It has been revealed that Hibs should have had a penalty awarded to them in a clash against St Johnstone which they eventually lost 2-1. The penalty decision which lead to the Hearts equaliser in February's 1-1 Edinburgh derby draw also shouldn’t have been given, despite VAR taking a second look being the right call.

Hearts meanwhile have been told a Celtic penalty shouldn’t have been awarded against them at Tynecastle. Adam Idah missed the spot kick and in the same game, Tomoki Iwata’s handball which resulted in a Hearts penalty and goal also shouldn’t have been given.

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell is not happy, with his side told they should have had a penalty against Aberdeen in a 1-0 defeat. His side have also had an appeal against Jack Vale’s red card against the Dons in another 1-0 defeat on Saturday denied.

Kettlewell is now of the belief he would rather see the game continue without VAR. Speaking on the new independent panel findings on the decisions against his side, Hearts, Hibs and other Premiership clubs, the Motherwell boss said: “I don’t believe that it’s creating a better spectacle, that it’s there for fan enjoyment, or even for that raw emotion for players and managers and coaches that when your team scores a goal or something happens in a game.

“I also have to say that I felt we were going to get to the sharp end of the right outcome, being punctual with decisions. I knew it was never going to be perfect from day one, but incrementally we would start to see improvements in those decisions.

“I’m not so sure that, from all the incidents we’ve seen, that there has been a dramatic change and improvement from within that. I think we would all enjoy it a heck of a lot more without it. We want that number, and a dare say the referees and everyone in Scottish football want that number to be zero, but I think that’s very unrealistic.

“However, 10 calls deemed incorrect since February is probably the accurate summation of what has gone on in recent times. When you get to that business end of the season that can have a huge bearing and a massive effect on clubs, outcomes, league positions, staying in the league, top six, Europe, all these different things, so that is concerning.

“From my side of it, I have never at any point thought that this would be a scenario where we didn’t get anything wrong. I’ve always felt there would be human error, this objective, subjective nature of decisions.

“What people forget is that I’m a human being, the players are human beings, and sometimes what doesn’t get taken into account is how many hours and how much work we do during the week. I’m not asking anybody to pat us on the back for that, it’s minimum 12 hour days for myself every day in preparation for a game on a Saturday.

“When you do all of that work and it gets to a Saturday, and you feel you’ve been unjustly called on a decision, something that has a major impact on the game, if you had done all those hours and spent all that time, do you think you would be a little bit aggrieved? We’re human beings as well.”