VAR has been excellent for Scottish football, Douglas Ross has insisted.

Speaking at In Conversation event at The Stand Comedy club during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Scottish Tory leader and assistant referee also addressed Celtic fans holding up a huge banner attacking him.

During a Scottish Cup tie between Celtic and St Mirren in 2023, the Green Brigade supporters’ group revealed a huge banner that read “VAR DECISION: DOUGLAS ROSS IS A C***”.

It came after a goal by Daizen Maeda was reviewed by the video technology.

Mr Ross was running the line as an assistant referee during the contest.

Speaking to the journalist Graham Spiers, Mr Ross said he hoped that because the “word that rhymes with hunt” was used in the banner, “it wouldn't really get reported.”

“It turns out they could, but just fit in asterisks.”

He said he had speaking about it recently with the sons of friends who had not realised he was the “Celtic banner boy.”

“It was in a Scottish Cup game, it was a late kickoff, and I remember I just awarded a goal to a Celtic. It was the first goal of the match.

“It was a tight onside, offside decision. I kept my flag down. VAR confirmed straight away that the goal was good.

“So my first point was, why are they putting that up? I've made a decision correct in favour of Celtic. You know, if I got it wrong, I could understand that.

“And then I thought secondly, I don't want to look at it too much, because I don't want a picture taken of me staring at this. But still, they managed to do it.

“And then I just thought, well, it's done now, I thought that looks pretty big, but maybe I've just got such great eyesight as a linesman that it's bigger than it actually is.

“But it turned out, no, it was pretty big.

“And in fairness, referee was Stephen McLean. He was very supportive, as was the rest of the team over the comms and and afterwards.

“And you know, there's nothing I could do about it. What I was determined to do was not let that affect my decision making, and it's one of the things you have to do.

”Sometimes in politics, you've got to switch off and focus on what's in front of you, but certainly in football, you've just got to ignore everything else and focus on making sure you don't make any mistakes in the remainder of the match.”

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Asked for his opinion on VAR, he said: “I think it's excellent for football. I think it can be improved. I think we can get quicker. I think some things can be better.

“But ultimately, and I was operating with it in Europe before we had it here in Scotland, so it was a group of us who were very strong advocates in Scotland, including William Collum, who's now our head of refereeing in Scotland.

”We'd seen the benefits of it in Europe.

”And the benefits are, why should the four people making the decisions on the pitch, the referee, his two assistants and the fourth official, be the only people in the whole stadium who don't know a mistake’s been made, because we've got to the stage where everyone's got an iPhone now, everyone can see a clip.

“I mean, you can watch any level of football anywhere in the world on your phone at any point, so we have that technology.

“Why would you put officials into a situation where they're humans, they make mistakes, and don't give them the tools to make sure if they err on the pitch, that that is reversed, and ultimately no team loses out.

“There will still be mistakes with VAR because it's human beings that are doing it, but the number of mistakes will be vastly reduced.

“But I accept it does take away from people's enjoyment. I see players not celebrating a goal because they think it's going to be chopped off, and fans are waiting in the stands.

“But I think, as I say, we can be more efficient. We can get better. But ultimately, if it stops a team losing points and potentially losing thousands or millions of pounds because of placings in the league, then it's got to be a good thing.”