The Scottish football shutdown has delayed the introduction of Video Assistant Referees in the Premiership, with potential trials this season also scrapped.
The technology is in use in countries across Europe, with the English Premier League using VAR for the first time this season.
Clubs in Scotland including Rangers have called for its introduction and the SFA had been well down the road toward having technology in the top flight before coronavirus caused football to grind to a halt.
Head of Referee Operations Crawford Allan confirmed: "VAR was being analysed in some detail prior to lockdown and we have been talking to suppliers and obtaining costs.
"We have also been talking to a number of other countries across Europe to learn from them: consistently it takes between six to nine months to fully implement VAR and the required infrastructure, and to train all relevant stakeholder groups from referees, to clubs, to media and spectators.
"There are financial implications and ongoing year-on-year costs for VAR. With the recent down turn in the economy and income to football in general, this may have an impact on the viability of VAR in the short term and the timing of its potential introduction to Scotland.
"I am in favour of its introduction and I know a lot of the Premiership clubs have come out in favour of it, so it may be a matter of timing.
"Ironically, the technology was due to be installed at Hampden Park for the Nations League Play-Off Semi-Final and UEFA Euro 2020 which led to detailed discussions on whether we could have used the opportunity to have some live testing during the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-finals or finals.
"Unfortunately the postponement of the Euro finals for 12 months has removed that possibility but I remain optimistic that we will have VAR before long.
"I see it more an investment in optimising correct decision making, for referees and the game, but I understand there are far more important matters that we are contending with at present."
