SCOTTISH referees’ chief Willie Collum has been giving his verdict on some of early season VAR controversies of the Scottish Premiership season.
And he’s pointed out that Celtic star Kyogo SHOULD have been awarded a penalty after a challenge by Kilmarnock goalkeeper Robby McCrorie on the opening day of the season.
5
5
He’s also revealed that a Cyriel Dessers goal during Rangers’ 6-0 win against Ross County shouldn’t have stood after the referee got a call wrong on a Tom Lawrence tackle – even though VAR was CORRECT to allow it once the foul wasn’t awarded as the attacking phase of play had re-set.
Collum criticised the body language of referee Matthew MacDermid when a more controversial goal from the same man against St Johnstone WAS awarded.
But that apart he reckons that the Dessers goal was correctly given – and it was just unfortunate if some St Johnstone players felt the referee was set to wrongly award the foul before the ball hit the net.
The clips are all from the first episode of The VAR review, a new monthly show produced by the SFA to give fans an insight into the decisions.
Read More Football Stories
On the incident during the 4-0 opening day win where Kyogo runs onto a quick lofted free-kick from Matt O’Riley before crashing into Killie keeper Robby McCrorie, Collum says Don Robertson and his VAR at Clydesdale House came up with the “wrong decision”.
He said: “We have coached the referees and the VARs that a penalty kick should have been awarded.
“There’s a couple of things I would like to discuss about the clip.
“Firstly, it’s an unexpected free kick, the move, with the way the ball is chipped over the wall.
“It catches the on-field referee by surprise, and it’s very difficult for the referee then to find an angle round that wall to be able to get a proper view of the incident.
“The Celtic player clearly gets ahead, wins the ball, touches the ball past the goalkeeper, and we then think that the goalkeeper’s actions are reckless.
“So for us, this should have been a penalty kick, an on-field review should have been requested, and the referee then asked to come to the monitor to make a judgment on this call.”
But Collum analyses TWO decisions involving Celtic, the other one being when James Forrest went down in the penalty area amid contact from two Hibs players during the 3-1 Celtic Park win on the second day.
And he reckons this WASN’T enough contact to merit a foul.
He says: “So for us, this is a correct decision for us on field.
“The referee moves and quickly identifies that for him, there’s not enough contact here for a penalty kick.
5
“It then goes to VAR, and VAR need to then check the incident.
“What’s really good for us is that the VAR checks three angles, three angles, and importantly, one of those angles, don’t tell them anything, and the VAR quickly moves to find the right angle, which is the angle behind the goal.
“We can clearly see in the clip there is some upper body contact, but we have been talking about that high threshold here in Scotland now, about VAR intervention, and also for the on-field referee to award a penalty kick.
“So for us, this doesn’t meet the standard or the threshold that we would expect for a penalty kick to be awarded for a foul to have taken place.”
Three Rangers’ controversies are analysed, staring with the opening day non-award of a penalty for handball against Connor Barron.
Collum reckons the referee and VAR got this one RIGHT.
He says: “For us, the key point here is that the arm is tucked into the body.
5
“The player does not make his body bigger. If the ball doesn’t hit the arm here, it’s probably hitting the body.
“And that’s key for us.
“This is a clear clip for us to show the direction of travel we want to take with handball. This is not punishable for us this season, moving forward.”
Then there are the two Dessers’ goals, both of which were allowed to stand.
His opening goal in the Premier Sports Cup clash against St Johnstone was the most controversial, with Saints players claiming the whistle had gone for a foul on the edge of the box before the Nigerian put it into the net.
While Collum is critical of referee Matthew MacDermid’s body language in the incident – for essentially indicating that he is going to give the free-kick – crucially Collum is insistent that the whistle sounded AFTER the goal was scored.
And that after a viewing on VAR ultimately awarding the goal was the correct decision.
5
He said: “We would definitely be critical of the referee in terms of body language, but everything else in the process, including the outcome and the final decision, we’re really pleased with.”
Dessers’ second controversial goal was against Ross County – and Collum reckons it SHOULDN’T have been allowed to as Tom Lawrence commits a foul beforehand.
Having said that, even though the referee got the on-field decision wrong that DOESN’T mean that the VAR decision to allow the goal was wrong, as there were enough passes afterwards for the ‘attacking phase of play’ to re-set.
VAR isn’t there to re-referee the game.
Collum says: “This is a really important clip for us. Key messages in this clip. Firstly, it’s a clear foul for me. The referee has missed on field.
“It’s a reckless tackle by the Rangers player. He catches the Ross County player. You’ll hear the referee saying that the ball’s been won, but the ball’s not been won.
“Again, we’ve coached the referee about finding the right angle, trying to find the right position, because when something happens at a split second, it can be easy to think that the ball has been touched.
“But for us in this case, and you can clearly see in TV review, the ball’s not been touched.
“If that player then takes possession of a ball, a Rangers player takes possession of a ball, immediately goes upfield, there’s maybe one or two passes, and a goal is scored, then we would consider this in the attacking phase of play.
Our New YouTube Channel
Subscribe to our new Scottish Sun Sport YouTube channel for all the latest football news, views and amazing moments.
We’ve got every major development covered from Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen and the rest of the Scottish Premiership.
Plus we have TWO brilliant new podcasts to watch every week…
MONDAY
Go Ballistic with Roger Hannah and special guest Kris Boyd will dissect all the weekend action and deliver their no-holds-barred reaction.
WEDNESDAY
Robert Grieve and Bill Leckie chew over the tastiest topics in Scottish football and offer their unique takes in their Coffee Club.
FRIDAY
Go Ballistic is back with Roger Hannah and top tipster Jim Delahunt looking ahead to the weekend games and analysing the biggest talking points.
Subscribe now and don’t miss a thing.
“However, when you look at this clip, there are a lot of passes made, some coming back the way. We would encourage the VAR, the VAR did it in this game, to reset the APP.
“So for us, the tackle is missed, it should have been a foul, but this does not constitute the APP.
“And that’s important for us, that that continual process takes place. There’s far too many passes. You don’t always go by a time judgement, but there’s a long time passes here.”
Read more on the Scottish Sun
On the whole, Collum says he is “content with the start we’ve made. We realised very quickly we had to improve on-field decision making on decision making in the VAR. We feel like we have made a step in the right direction.”
But another error he reckons VAR made was failing to award Dundee United a spot kick for hand ball in their 2-2 draw with Dundee on the opening weekend.
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
