There’s a motion for a SPFL vote on the retention/ demise of VAR through SMISA. 

It’s a members led vote instead of SMISA itself, as such they won’t directly email members about it unless it gets the support needed (5% of members which is 73 people). 

If any SMISA member is interested in backing the vote or wants the official comms emailed over so they can read/ decide. Send me a private message with your email. 

Alternatively info was posted on the Facebook fan group pages yesterday.

A SMISA member can also pledge their support by quoting the below, either on the chat or in a private message and i’ll pass it on. 

 

 

SMISA member with voting rights - yes 

Supportive of a fan vote on the retention of VAR - yes 

Name

Cheers to those that emailed/ private messaged for more details on this. 

Blown right by 40%support in less than five days since the initial proposals went out. If anyone still wants information, I will now share on here for a read. 

Thought it best to hang off initially because it’s quite long. 👍

Any questions, points to make let me know. You know I like a good, healthy, respectful discussion on here 😂

Slightly abbreviated believe it or not.  

 

Dear SMISA member,

I’m seeking your support to request a Special General Meeting (SGM), with the aim of obliging an SPFL member club vote on the future of VAR from the 2026/27 season onwards.

If you are indeed a SMISA member and would like to support my request, please reply confirming two things:

1. You are an eligible voting SMISA member (all members excluding Junior)
2. You support holding a members’ vote on this proposal

 

Reply in this format:
SMISA member with voting rights – Yes
Support for the proposal – Yes

Please also add full name if it isn't clear from your email stamp.

There are no additional requirements in supporting the proposal. Per SMISA governance, I require 73 (5%) voting members’ support to progress to a vote. However, if you know other SMISA members who may support this, please forward this email and copy me in.

The proposal (the question to clubs)
Should the SPFL continue using VAR in its current form from the 2026/27 season onwards in the Scottish Premier League and cup competitions? Yes/No

This relates specifically to the current technology, implementation, and existing Scottish referee and officials’ population. We strongly encourage fans and clubs to vote based on what VAR currently is, not on a hypothetical future state, as there has been no communication on significant changes to technology, the introduction of full-time officials, or meaningful upskilling of the current referee population. Bar some minimal changes, it is very likely VAR for 2026/27 will be managed in a similar fashion to the last three seasons.

What happens next
• If I am supported by 73 SMISA members, it will trigger an SGM mandate.
• A formal vote will be cascaded to SMISA members on “the proposal”.
• If approved by members, the St Mirren board would be obliged to approach the SPFL and request a league-wide club vote on VAR.

Guidance to SPFL member clubs on voting
Should the vote pass the SMISA stages, we will strongly recommend clubs are transparent and including of supporters by confirming the below parameters in how they have decided to vote:
• Did the club consult fans on how to vote on the proposal? Yes/No

If yes:

• How they were consulted (e.g. season ticket polling, fan ownership votes such as SMISA/Well Society)
• The outcome of that engagement
• Whether the club vote reflects fan views

Why this matters
This is about progressing a highly divisive issue in Scottish football through a clear, democratic process. It will either:
• Demonstrate clubs are engaging properly with fans and taking their views onboard, or
• Highlight where fan views are not being reflected by SPFL clubs

Either way, it brings clarity and accountability. The best-case scenario will be clubs engaging with fans and the vote, democratically reflective of fan views. Should this happen, regardless of the voting outcome, Scottish football will be able to move on knowing it’s a democratically arrived at view.

Important context
This proposal is only about whether VAR should continue in its current format for 2026/27 and beyond.
We recognise improvements may be explored, but there is no clear justification for continuing with the current model and VAR usage if fans declare they do not want to while those discussions continue.
Even in the English Premier League, with significantly greater investment, full-time officials and advanced technology, recent fan sentiment has shown strong opposition to VAR. Over 75% of polled fans were against its continued use.
There is also evidence that it is unpopular in Scottish football. Last season, the Well Society (Motherwell) polled its members, with 63% of respondents not supporting VAR.

Please help
As noted above, if you know other SMISA members who may support this, please forward this email and copy me in.
Whether you support VAR or not, this is an opportunity for St Mirren and Scottish football to be trendsetter and lead on meaningful fan engagement and deliver a genuinely democratic outcome.

I look forward to hearing from you and if you wish to discuss further before deciding on your support, please let me know.

Best wishes and COYS

I know the manager appointment is the hot topic and rightfully so. 

But just in way of an update on the SMISA VAR vote. We have now passed the 90% mark. Seven notes of support from SMISA members left and it will trigger an SGM mandate. 

Thanks to those that have supported already. Send me a message if you can help get us over the line. 

I’m sure the hearts fans would support this too 😂

Sellic fans?

Maybe not

9 hours ago, HSS said:

I’m sure the hearts fans would support this too 😂

Sellic fans?

Maybe not

Hearts did benefit from VAR decisions too. We are well out in front for miscarriage of justice as far as VAR is concerned. I think the agenda of suggesting celtic somehow won the league purely because of VAR is a misconception that is fuelled by those who will use any statistic to undermine Hearts' undoubted failure to capitalise on what should have been a disastrous season for both glasgow entities. Hearts fell apart,.... AGAIN.

Personally? I was probably in the minority of non ersecheeks fans who DIDN'T want McInnes to win anything as I find him an odious toad.

ALMOST to the extent of wanting celtic to win the league and see his team fail and his fans sitting on the steps of wherever bawling again. I was disappointed it wasn't the likes of Motherwell who were in their situation as it would have been a shoe in that I'd be metaphorically wearing maroon and amber on the final day. 

Edited June 6Jun 6 by stlucifer

It's pretty obvious that VAR isn't the problem as there's been next to nothing worth talking about at the World Cup. 

It is very obvious it's the incompetence of the Scottish officials that's the real problem. 

Remove VAR and you have NO measurements on the right or wrong decisions. 

That's a fact. 

I was over at the World Cup so wasn’t really pushing this topic. Been back on it the last week or so since I’ve been home. 

Delighted to announce that we have now met and verified our target to trigger a Special General Meeting. It’ll take place before the end of July with invites to be sent to SMISA members.

Following discussion and questions, we will look to vote on the resolution to oblige the St Mirren board to request a vote on retain/ remove VAR.

Thanks to everyone that backed the proposal. 

On 6/14/2026 at 6:21 AM, faraway saint said:

It's pretty obvious that VAR isn't the problem as there's been next to nothing worth talking about at the World Cup. 

It is very obvious it's the incompetence of the Scottish officials that's the real problem. 

Remove VAR and you have NO measurements on the right or wrong decisions. 

That's a fact. 

Fair enough if you think differently. But I feel there’s been quite a few suspect/ wrong VAR calls at the WC. McGinn penalty, Adams last man red card call, England escaping a penalty, Argentina favouritism…. Even for us, there was maybe a little luck McLean didn’t get a red card against Brazil. And that was just knockout stages. 

On your incompetence of the officials in Scotland point. I cover that in the proposal. The vote is on VAR usage as it will be for next season, not on a hypothetical future state.

Largely the same officials will be managing VAR in Scotland next season. If they’re the reason VAR doesn’t work for people, I don’t see why we should keep it. 

1 minute ago, bazil85 said:

Fair enough if you think differently. But I feel there’s been quite a few suspect/ wrong VAR calls at the WC. McGinn penalty, Adams last man red card call, England escaping a penalty, Argentina favouritism…. Even for us, there was maybe a little luck McLean didn’t get a red card against Brazil. And that was just knockout stages. 

On your incompetence of the officials in Scotland point. I cover that in the proposal. The vote is on VAR usage as it will be for next season, not on a hypothetical future state.

Largely the same officials will be managing VAR in Scotland next season. If they’re the reason VAR doesn’t work for people, I don’t see why we should keep it. 

You're correct on the world cup. Since my post there's been umpteen wrong calls, showing incompetence isn't the sole ownership of of Scottish officials. 

As I said, remove it and you have no measurements to TRY to improve the errors that have plagued football for decades. 

Cheers. 👍 

4 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

You're correct on the world cup. Since my post there's been umpteen wrong calls, showing incompetence isn't the sole ownership of of Scottish officials. 

As I said, remove it and you have no measurements to TRY to improve the errors that have plagued football for decades. 

Cheers. 👍 

Fair. One thing I’ll be covering ahead of the vote is this isn’t me preaching for support of my view on VAR. 

I think fans of Scottish football have watched enough games with VAR to make up their own mind. The aim is simply to give a choice to fans on retain/ remove, not to influence how they’d vote. 
 

Best case scenario is ultimately the prevailing view to ring true. (Be that yay or nay) 

Even with VAR it's often comes down to the referee making a subjective decision, VAR corrects the more obvious mistakes so I'm in favour.

The one thing I think would improve VAR is a time limit - if you can't make your mind up after 30 secs then stick with the original decision.

********************

The emerging concern is players trying to game the system (Shankland against us in the 2-2 game) and I've seen 2/3 penalty claims in this WC where I reckon the attacker has caught the defenders leg rather than vice-versa. My opinion is that the players are more "clued up" than the refs.

5 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

Even with VAR it's often comes down to the referee making a subjective decision, VAR corrects the more obvious mistakes so I'm in favour.

The one thing I think would improve VAR is a time limit - if you can't make your mind up after 30 secs then stick with the original decision.

********************

The emerging concern is players trying to game the system (Shankland against us in the 2-2 game) and I've seen 2/3 penalty claims in this WC where I reckon the attacker has caught the defenders leg rather than vice-versa. My opinion is that the players are more "clued up" than the refs.

I think your points are spot on. You fix tech problems, you don't just abandon it (maybe make a exception with HS2).

I especially agree with your time limit point. It is not clear and obvious if it takes that long to decide.

9 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

Even with VAR it's often comes down to the referee making a subjective decision, VAR corrects the more obvious mistakes so I'm in favour.

The one thing I think would improve VAR is a time limit - if you can't make your mind up after 30 secs then stick with the original decision.

********************

The emerging concern is players trying to game the system (Shankland against us in the 2-2 game) and I've seen 2/3 penalty claims in this WC where I reckon the attacker has caught the defenders leg rather than vice-versa. My opinion is that the players are more "clued up" than the refs.

Will be a number of different views, I’m sure. 

My main issue with this ‘fix’ is it will effectively just move the problem. 

- that was a wrong call, why didn’t they realise in 30 seconds?

- we have to draw offside lines because our VAR is rubbish. If that’s not done in 30 seconds, what happens? 
- similar to above, our VAR is bargain basement. If you’re checking different aspects, build up, contact, offside… again what happens if the actual check to get the info is more than 30 seconds? 

My personal view is, anything that impacts the split second capability to celebrate a goal or other big decision in football, is fundamentally not comparable with the beautiful game. That’s largely because of what you said (football is subjective) 

But as noted to FS, I’m not looking to change minds. I’m only wanting fans across Scottish football to have their say. 

4 minutes ago, ianmac said:

I think your points are spot on. You fix tech problems, you don't just abandon it (maybe make a exception with HS2).

I especially agree with your time limit point. It is not clear and obvious if it takes that long to decide.

I try and cover this in the proposal. The VAR vote is aimed at what VAR is today & for next season. If they can introduce something in the future that means we can check everything in 30 seconds & you’d be happy with it, fair. Right now, the tech doesn’t allow for it. 

For me, I don’t see any reason we should continue with a suboptimal VAR while they make these changes in the background. If they want to come back in the future & vote on a far improved VAR system they can.

My caveat to that future though. The World Cup is gold standard, it’s the most cutting edge, technologically advanced VAR system ever used anywhere in the world. They’ve still got multiple calls wrong imo, it lacks consistency, it lacks transparency & it still impacts fans ability to celebrate.
 

It also (again IMO) shows unbelievable and blatant favouritism to bigger nations. Isn’t that supposed to be a selling point for VAR, to stop the bias? 

4 minutes ago, bazil85 said:

I try and cover this in the proposal. The VAR vote is aimed at what VAR is today & for next season. If they can introduce something in the future that means we can check everything in 30 seconds & you’d be happy with it, fair. Right now, the tech doesn’t allow for it. 

For me, I don’t see any reason we should continue with a suboptimal VAR while they make these changes in the background. If they want to come back in the future & vote on a far improved VAR system they can.

My caveat to that future though. The World Cup is gold standard, it’s the most cutting edge, technologically advanced VAR system ever used anywhere in the world. They’ve still got multiple calls wrong imo, it lacks consistency, it lacks transparency & it still impacts fans ability to celebrate.
 

It also (again IMO) shows unbelievable and blatant favouritism to bigger nations. Isn’t that supposed to be a selling point for VAR, to stop the bias? 

VAR or no VAR is not going to fix that. 

 

Anyway, I applaud your effort to try to fix/improve it. I fear that you will get a knee jerk response to your effort.

7 minutes ago, ianmac said:

VAR or no VAR is not going to fix that. 

 

Completely agree. For me, it comes down to ‘was football better or worse before VAR.’ 

For me, it isn’t even close that it was better before. VAR hasn’t sorted the problem & doesn’t add enough regarding correcting decisions to warrant impacting fan experience & the free flowing nature of the game. 

Is that a majority view across Scottish football fans? I certainly hope we’re given the option to find out but we’ll see. 

7 minutes ago, ianmac said:

Anyway, I applaud your effort to try to fix/improve it. I fear that you will get a knee jerk response to your effort.

I fear you might be right but whatever way it goes, I feel it moves the dial forward somewhat. The three outcomes 

1. SMISA members democratically say no to a vote. I know they aren’t representative of all St Mirren fans but it would certainly be an indication of support for VAR & something people can refer to if there’s any future frustration from our fans at VAR calls. 

2. the vote goes out to clubs & clubs choose to engage their fans on how to vote. This is my overwhelming preference & it would effectively end the keep/ bin debate democratically. 
3. enough clubs choose not to engage their fans on how to vote to influence the decision. This would be really unfortunate but it would highlight the clubs who haven’t listened to their main stakeholders (the fans) 

We’ll see how it goes. Looking forward to the SGM.  

Bazil, good luck with this campaign though it will probably be a long hard road ahead.

VAR is a complete waste of money, why the authorities thought it would help the game is mystifying, but probably keeps numerous blazers in a job somewhere.

Football decisions are subjective, why we feel the need to add another two officials opinions to the 4 already on duty is laughable.

It must be an nightmare now to be the man in the middle, where you are now expected to give a running commentary on your decisions to the VAR team. With them saying clear in your earpiece every twenty seconds. 

To put a 30 second time on checks is also wrong, as during an old fashioned stramash the Var team will be analysing numerous incidents so the ref cannot restart play until they are all checked.

Also there have been numerous horrendous decisions at the World Cup not picked up by VAR or the "experts" in the studio, maybe they are all enjoying their jolly to the States too much.

Get it in the sea and let the best refs rise to the top without all the technology distracting them.

SGM meeting and SMISA resolution on the VAR question confirmed. 

Thursday 23rd June, 6:30pm (SMISA stadium or virtually) 

Members are being asked to vote on whether SMiSA should ask St Mirren FC to formally request the SPFL to poll member clubs on the following question:

“Does the member club support the retention or removal of VAR from the 2026/27 season onwards? ( Voting response – Retain VAR or Remove VAR”)

 

Proxy volunteers wanted. 

For the SMISA vote on Thursday 23rd of July, we have a number of members who can’t attend and have requested to vote via proxy. 

If you can be at the stadium and are willing to act as a proxy, please let me know here or PM. You don’t need to be a SMISA member to act as someone’s proxy. 

For any non-SMISA members, on Thursday we passed the resolution for St Mirren to request an SPFL member vote on VAR usage.

This mandate will now be passed to the St Mirren board at the next meeting of the boards in early August.

All going well, the next step will be to seek support from two other SPFL clubs to hold the 42 club vote

Instead of SMISA wasting their time on nonsense like this they should be asking what the hell is going on at our football club?

This from an organisation who decided to spend SEVEN GRAND on a replica league cup. Absolute Amateurs.

There is no VAR in the Championship or league One so we will not have much longer to deal with it.

18 minutes ago, Mr Optimistic said:

Instead of SMISA wasting their time on nonsense like this they should be asking what the hell is going on at our football club?

This from an organisation who decided to spend SEVEN GRAND on a replica league cup. Absolute Amateurs.

There is no VAR in the Championship or league One so we will not have much longer to deal with it.

What an arse.