Scotland’s Head of Refereeing Willie Collum has acknowledged that Rangers should have been awarded a penalty in their Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic.
New Ibrox Chief Executive Patrick Stewart sought an explanation from the SFA over the non-award of a spot-kick when defender Liam Scales pulled the shirt of winger Vaclav Cerny.
Still images showed that the pull continued into the penalty box, with former referee Bobby Madden stating on social media that it was ‘100 per cent a penalty kick’ before expressing surprise that the three-man VAR team of Alan Muir, Frank Connor and Andrew Dallas failed to upgrade the award of a free-kick on the edge of the area.
All three officials have been omitted from this weekend’s match-list in the Scottish Premiership after Collum acknowledged that they had made a ‘really, really poor’ and ‘unacceptable’ decision in the course of a game Celtic went on to win on a penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw.
Speaking on the SFA’s The VAR Review show on YouTube, Collum admitted that the decision was rushed and should have provoked an immediate factual correction, with an instruction to referee John Beaton to award a penalty.
‘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 the penalty area line.
Celtic’s Liam Scales pulls down Rangers’ Vaclav Cerny at the edge of the penalty box
Willie Collum has admitted Rangers should have been awarded a penalty for the incident
Rangers manager Philippe Clement had questioned the decision after the final defeat
‘The foot is actually irrelevant in this case, 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 VAR team need to go into a check, and they need to decide whether this incident is inside or outside, and ultimately, they fail to come to the correct conclusion, which is this should have been a factual overturn.
‘No need for the referee to go to the monitor, a factual overturn for a penalty kick to be allotted.’
Expressing the view that the decision faced by the VAR team was ‘not difficult’, Collum criticised the process and has already hauled video assistants into Clydesdale House for crisis talks while vowing to learn from the incident to avoid a repeat.
‘Ultimately, 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 area, 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 that continues into the penalty area.
‘We’ve dissected this incident, because people will obviously hear me saying today that it’s wrong, but that’s not enough.
‘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.
‘So the VAR, when he’s checking the incident, again, my understanding, my opinion is that he’s probably focused too much on the Rangers player, most of his body being outside.
‘He doesn’t then analyse the holding enough, and he then says to the AVAR, who’s supporting him, the AVAR’s noting down the yellow card for the Celtic player at the time, he’s focused on the paperwork. That’s a learning point.
‘We should park the paperwork, we can catch up on the paperwork, the focus needs to be on the decision.
‘The ball’s dead, the AVAR’s not watching live play, it’s an opportunity for the team of VAR officials to focus on the incident and the incident alone. But the VAR asks the AVAR, it’s outside, do you agree? So even small details like that, that’s a closed question.’
Muir was at the heart of a previous cock-up when he failed to recommend a pitchside review for a penalty to Celtic in a game against Motherwell at Fir Park earlier this season.
Despite awarding the same official the first showpiece final of the season, Collum claims there is transparency and accountability when referees err.
‘It’s a really, really poor decision. It’s an unacceptable decision.
‘The VAR team know that. Everybody in refereeing knows that it’s unacceptable.
‘We will do our very, very best through our coaching, through our analysis, to make sure an incident like this never happens again.
‘We’ve said to the VARs moving forward, we’ve had them in on Monday, we’ve had them in on Tuesday, the top-match officials, to say, we need a question here, look at this incident, assess it for yourself, and then there’s more of an opportunity for the VAR to assess that from a neutral standpoint, rather than be clouded about what the VAR said.
‘It’s essentially just a rushed incident that needs far more care and attention.
‘I was very open when I took up this role at the start of the season. There would be accountability in refereeing.
‘I told the media, I told the managers, that we would deal with things internally, there would be accountability, but we’ve been consistent with that throughout the season.
‘I can assure people of that. I did say that if match officials find themselves not involved in future matches, or we need to change the profile of a match for somebody, we won’t come out and publicly say that.
‘A manager doesn’t come out and publicly talk about he’s maybe taking a player out.
‘But we’ve also got a responsibility to protect the wider group of the referees. And we’ve also got a real responsibility to protect the match officials involved in this as well.
‘So what I’m assuring you, as I sit here today, is there’s accountability in refereeing.’
