Willie Collum admitted Rangers SHOULD have been awarded a penalty in Sunday’s League Cup Final against Celtic.
Fury has surrounded the decision to award a free-kick for a pull on the jersey of Vaclav Cerny by Hoops defender Liam Scales.
Now Scottish FA Head of Refereeing Operations Willie Collum has confirmed the Ibrox side were denied a certain spot kick.
Speaking in December’s edition of the VAR Review he said: “There’s a holding incident we need to assess here. The holding is the key part of this decision. It’s really important.
“There’s been a lot said about the Rangers player having a foot on the penalty area line. 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 continuous 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 has awarded a free-kick on field because 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 decide whether this incident is inside or outside. Ultimately they’ve failed to come to the correct conclusion which is this should have been a factual overturn. There’s no need for the referee to go to the monitor.
Officials can be heard discussing the incident on the VAR audio posted on the Scottish FA’s official YouTube account.
The VAR team concluded the incident took place ‘just outside the penalty area’ although admitting ‘It’s really close’.
Willie Collum added: “I have to be very honest and say people need to take time to make sure is the holding inside or outside.
“When you look at the TV pictures, 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 players’ 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 continuous into the penalty area.
“We’ve dissected this incident because people will hear me say today that it’s wrong but that’s not enough. We need to now understand why we got it wrong and how do we make things better. What’s the lessons learned from this incident because people will find it very hard to accept this error.
“The VAR asks the assistant VAR ‘it’s outside, do you agree’ So even small details like that, that’s a closed question. We’ve said to the VAR we need a question here, look at this incident, assess it for yourself. Then there’s more of an opportunity for the VAR to assess that from a neutral stand point, rather than being clouded about what the VAR has said.
“It’s an unacceptable decision. The VAR team know that. Everyone in refereeing knows it. We will do our very best through our coaching to make sure an incident like this never happens again.
“It’s a mistake but it’s a bad mistake. I did say if match officials don’t find themselves involved in future matches, or we need to change a profile of a match for somebody, we won’t come out and publicly say that.
“We’ve also got a responsibility to protect the wider group of the referees and we’ve got a real responsibility to protect the match officials involved in this as well. So I an assuring you as I sit here today, there will be accountability in refereeing but there has been accountability consistently since I’ve taken up post.”
