Hibernian’s clash with St Johnstone next week will be the first match in Scotland to use the video assistant referee (VAR) technology.

After nearly three years of planning, development and testing, Fifa has approved its use north of the border, and VAR will be in use at all six cinch Premiership fixtures across the weekend of October 21/22/23, with Hibs match against St Johnstone at Easter Road being the first on Friday evening.

It will be coordinated from the video operations room at Clydesdale House in the east end of Glasgow.

The technology assists the on-field officials who may have missed or erred their decisions straight red cards, penalty area incidents, goals and mistaken identity.

Crawford Allan, the Scottish FA’s head of referee operations, said: “We have worked extensively over a near three-year period to get to this point, have tested in every cinch Premiership stadium as part of the training process, and we are ready to go.

“As we have seen across the world, VAR has helped ensure a higher percentage of on-field refereeing decisions are accurate and that is a principle our match officials support.”

As well as all cinch Premiership matches, VAR will also be used for all Scottish Cup and Premier Sports Cup semi-final and final matches played at Hampden Park. Production on all cinch Premiership matches will also increase to a minimum of six cameras, bringing greater quality and depth to coverage of the league.

Hibernian FC said: “From being the first British team to play in Europe, the first to install floodlights and the first team to wear a commercial sponsor on their shirt, the club continue the trend of being one of the great innovators in the game and will now be the first team to use the new video technology in the Scottish top flight.”