AT long last, VAR is going to be introduced to Scottish football but there is a degree of trepidation ahead of its overdue implementation.

Despite the technology only being used in the top flight, all 42 SPFL clubs voted on the proposal via e-mail yesterday with just one club from the Championship rejecting the idea.

The 12 Premiership clubs will foot the £1.2m per season cost on a sliding scale but it won’t be introduced until after the World Cup in December.

VAR will also be used for the League Cup semi-finals and final next year with discussions planned to introduce it for earlier rounds in future seasons.

Let me start by saying, it’s a massive step forward for Scottish football and it’s about time too. The fact there was only one club against the proposal tells you of the overwhelming feeling to move with the times and improve the game.

It will be hoped that its introduction will alleviate the mounting pressure on referees. We have witnessed this as recently as Sunday with Bobby Madden lambasted for his performance in Rangers' Scottish Cup semi-final win over Celtic. In an ideal world, VAR will guard against pantomime pundits like Chris Sutton screenshotting Madden’s Instagram page and inviting a pile-on.

READ MORE: How Rangers' dependable duo of James Tavernier and Connor Goldson defined Old Firm derby

Such has been Rangers’ success in Europe in recent seasons, we have experienced VAR first-hand and, in the main it’s been used to great effect although I’m still not having Borna Barisic’s ‘handball’ in the build-up to Kemar Roofe’s header against Braga.

Joking aside, UEFA use the technology to great effect. There is very little in the way of delays to the match when a check is being carried out and when the referee does check the monitor at the side of the pitch, a decision is usually made within seconds.

The big question that will be bestowed on the Scottish officials will be, can they use the technology as well as we have witnessed in the Europa League?

Having reported on English Premier League games for several years, the use of VAR down south has been nothing short of disastrous. Its initial introduction was said to eliminate contentious decisions and result in supporters and pundits talking about football rather than refereeing calls. The opposite has happened.

In the first two seasons of VAR, there were dubious decisions being made that were debated at length afterwards. We had the absurd scenario where a player’s left armpit could be the difference in an offside call and reviews could take several minutes to come to a decision. Then there is the fact the referees were instructed not to make use of the pitchside monitor so all decisions were being made by a team of officials in Stockley Park in London.

Alterations were made for the start of the 2021/22 campaign with penalties no longer awarded for any contact from a defender towards an attacker, thicker lines are now used to determine if a player is offside, handball rules were tweaked so only accidental handballs leading to a goal are punished and linesmen are now able to flag more often for blatant offsides as opposed to allowing the passage of play to play out.

It's certainly improved the game but there are still too many occasions when VAR decisions are leading to confusion and, more often than not, affecting the outcome of games.

This is a genuine concern when December comes around and we start using the technology in Scotland. It is a tool that needs to be used correctly, failure to do so will result in even more controversy.

READ MORE: VAR voted in by SPFL clubs as technology set to be introduced to Scottish Premiership

The introduction of VAR improves the respectability of the Scottish top flight and should, in theory, enhance the overall game.

SPFL Chief Executive, Neil Doncaster commented: "The SPFL chose not to be an early adopter of VAR technology to allow time for teething issues to be ironed out by those leagues who adopted VAR early.

"I believe this was the right decision and that VAR will help referees to ensure tight decisions are more often the right ones and will support a higher standard and more consistent level of decision-making.

"Scottish referees are fully on-board with this innovation and have been overwhelmingly supportive about the introduction of VAR during our consultation process with our partners at the Scottish FA."

As much as Doncaster is right in saying VAR will help referees, the next pressing issue that needs to be addressed is to make the officials full-time.

There is no reason why they cannot dedicate their entire working week to refereeing and focusing on improving their decision-making. They are paid handsomely enough and for VAR to work as smoothly as we often see in the Europa League then having full-time referees will be a major contributor.

Time will tell if that comes to pass but yesterday’s announcement is certainly a step in the right direction.