Scottish FA head of referee operations Willie Collum says VAR made a ”really, really poor” and “unacceptable” decision not to award Rangers a penalty against Celtic in Sunday’s Scottish League Cup final.
The Ibrox side, who lost the final on penalties after a 3-3 draw, were awarded a free-kick in extra time when Liam Scales was penalised for a pull on Vaclav Cerny very near the edge of the Celtic area, the free-kick not resulting in a goal.
Collum said the VAR officials moved “far too quickly” in their analysis of the incident and were “not forensic enough”.
“People will obviously hear me say today that it’s wrong but that’s not enough,” he said.
“We need to now understand why did we get it wrong and how do we make things better, how do we improve, what’s the lessons learned from this incident because people will find it very hard to accept this error. Very difficult to accept it.
“It’s a really, really poor decision. It’s an unacceptable decision. The VAR team know that, everyone in refereeing knows it.
“We will do our very, very best through our coaching, through our analysis to make sure an incident like this never happens again. But it’s a mistake, it’s a bad mistake.
“When you look at the TV pictures here, this is not a difficult decision for the VAR team. They are not forensic enough in the analysis. They move far too quickly.
“I think they’re thrown because the majority of the Rangers player’s body is outside the penalty are but that’s irrelevant because it’s the holding that they should be judging and they should be making sure they get a clear image to show them that continues into the penalty area.”
‘This should’ve been a factual overturn’
Addressing the Cerny and Scales incident in more detail on the SFA’s VAR Review, Collum commented: “There’s a holding incident we need to assess here. The holding’s the key part of this decision, it’s really, really important.
“There’s been a lot said about the Rangers player has a foot on penalty line. The foot here is irrelevant here. It’s about the holding and the holding only because that’s where the contact is.
“The holding begins outside the penalty area and then it continues on the line and even arguably beyond the line and fully into the penalty area. But, regardless, the fact it’s on the line, this should be considered as a penalty kick.”
“The referee’s awarded the free-kick on field, he sees the pulling, he’s correctly judged the incident in terms of the foul play. But then the VAR team need to go into a check and they need to decide whether this incident is inside or outside and ultimately, they failed to come to the correct conclusion, which is this should’ve been a factual overturn.
“No need for the referee to go to the monitor – a factual overturn for a penalty kick to be awarded.”
Deas & Gogic calls right, Walton red card missed
Collum backed the decision to dismiss Robbie Deas for his challenge on Hearts’ Kenneth Vargas in Kilmarnock’s 1-0 Sunday Premiership win and said a red to a yellow card for St Mirren’s Alex Gogic following his tackle on Aberdeen’s Shayden Morris was also the right call, the Buddies winning that November game 2-1.
However, Collum said there should have been an on-field review of Dundee United goalkeeper Jack Walton’s booking for a foul on St Mirren forward Toyosi Olusanya and a red card recommended.
Furthermore, Collum agreed with the decision not to award Rangers a penalty for a suspected handball by St Johnstone’s Jack Sanders at McDiarmid Park in early December, Rangers ultimately winning the game 1-0.
