Leighton Clarkson said he “100 percent” wants VAR to be scrapped following the controversy over which saw Aberdeen denied a late winner at Livingston.
The Dons thought Bojan Miovski’s 92nd-minute scissors kick had given them a 1-0 win in East Lothian, but, after a check, Angus MacDonald was ruled to have been offside from Clarkson’s initial free-kick delivery.
It has since emerged the Hawkeye system used to place calibrated lines on images and designed to provide VAR officials with factual, objective rulings on offsides was not working, with a scathing Aberdeen statement revealing the SFA’s admission officials had made a “guess” to rule the goal out.
Though the SFA tried to quell the controversy by retrospectively asking Hawkeye to look at the footage and releasing an image which they claimed showed MacDonald had been offside, interim Aberdeen boss Peter Leven said on Friday he thinks the lines had been drawn on the wrong Livingston player in this after-the-fact analysis.
The saga has solidified Clarkson and his team-mates’ view VAR is not good for football.
Asked if he would get rid of the technology, he said: “100 percent.
“As footballers, we grew up watching last-minute winners and goals.
“Even now, you don’t know why the game is being stopped for something 30 seconds before.”
The 22-year-old thinks VAR is functioning worse with “every game” in Scotland, adding: “It is frustrating.
“We are all told at the start of the season how VAR is supposed to work, and every game, I would say, is worse.
“Referees aren’t really refereeing the games, and there are calls where before VAR it was just a case of get on with it and play football.
“It takes the fans’ excitement out of the game as well.
“We scored late on against Livingston. It was a poor game and they (the fans) were waiting for that one moment. They have celebrated and it is offside by a toe – if it even was offside.
“These things shouldn’t really be happening.”
Clarkson also pointed to the incredibly tight VAR offside call in February against Miovski which meant Aberdeen were denied a famous 4-3 comeback win from 3-0 down at home to Motherwell.
He said: “Still to this day I don’t know how it was offside, but that is where the line has been drawn.”
He added: “We’ve had a lot of decisions go against us this season.
“Yes, you are going to gain and not gain at times, but the amount of times we have been at a disadvantage over VAR is quite scary to be honest.
“VAR is not good. It is not improving – it is getting worse.
“It takes the excitement out of Scottish football and all football.
“I would like referees doing their own jobs.”
Clarkson ‘We have fire in our belly to finish the season really well’
Aberdeen would still have been in the mix – just – for the top six heading into Saturday’s Pittodrie Premiership meeting with Dundee had they won at Livingston.
However, with a Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic at Hampden next weekend and the enduring frustrations of a poor 1-0 defeat at Dens last month, Clarkson said: “We need to win it.
“Pete has told us we need to come out and win every game. We have tried to do that.
“We should have won at Livingston, but the Dundee game away we were really poor – that was one of our poorest of the season.
“We know they will have a lot to play for and have that extra fire in their belly, but we have to have that fire in our belly to finish the season well.”
‘As of now, Peter is the manager’
As well as the VAR controversy, this week also saw Aberdeen’s hunt for their next permanent manager take a big leap forward – with Elfsborg head coach Jimmy Thelin, 46, expected to take the Dons reins in the summer.
Clarkson admits the players “are aware” of speculation over the appointment, which has yet to be confirmed, but only know what has been reported.
He said: “It is all speculation at the moment.
“What we get told is what you know.
“The club have come out and said they are looking for a manager and they do seem to be getting closer.
“As of now, Peter is the manager and that is all we know.”
Clarkson spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan at Pittodrie from Liverpool before signing for the club permanently last summer.
Having played under bosses Jim Goodwin and Barry Robson, as well as interim gaffers Leven and Neil Warnock, in fewer than two seasons, he is happy for Aberdeen to take their time finding the right man following Robson’s sacking in late January.
Clarkson said: “If they are taking their time and the next guy is in for three of four years and gets the club back to where it should be, then so be it.”
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