Willie Collum, SFA head of referees, has admitted that VAR got a big penalty call wrong during Celtic’s first game of the season.
However, he has defended a number of high profile incidents across the opening months of the Scottish Premiership season.
Celtic beat Killie 4-0 on the opening day of the season as the Parched side raised the Championship flag. Collum accepted that Brendan Rodgers’ side ought to have had penalty in the latter stages of the game after Rugby Park goalkeeper Robby McCrorie blocked Kyogo Furuhashi as the Hoops striker looked to connect.
Referee Don Robertson waved play on with McCrorie and Kilmarnock avoiding any sanction as VAR official Craig Napier backed the call.
“We believe this is the wrong decision,” said Collum in a new SFA VAR Review show which is expected to run monthly.
“We have coached the referees and the VARs that a penalty should have been awarded here. There are a couple of things I would like to discuss about the clip. Firstly, it is an unexpected free-kick with the way the ball is chipped over the wall and it catches the on-field referee by surprise.
“It is then very difficult for the referee to find an angle around that wall to get a view of the incident, because the referees priority is that if there is a shot there is potential for handball in the wall. So, he has positioned himself correctly to judge that and it then becomes a very difficult decision for him to make on-field.
“The Celtic player clearly gets ahead, wins the ball, touches the ball past the goalkeeper and we then think the goalkeeper’s actions are reckless. So for us, this should have been a penalty kick and an on-field review should have been requested and the referee then asked to make a judgement on the call.”
Collum also insisted that Cyriel Dessers’ opening goal against St Johnstone at Hampden in the Premier Sports Cup was the right decision. It was a goal that caused controversy with whistler Matthew MacDermid appearing to signal that the Ibrox striker had committed a foul – before VAR intervened and the goal was allowed to stand.
MacDermid was called over to the monitor and after a review of both the foul and a possible offside, he gestured for the goal to stand. Collum was critical of the whistler but stopped short of saying the goal should not have stood.
“The starting point for us is we coach the referees about good body language, and the referee here probably doesn’t use good body language,” explained Collum. “We see on the edge of the penalty area everything is edging towards a free-kick, body language wise.
“His body language is showing that but he correctly delays the whistle. He correctly communicates to the VAR what he is intending to do if a goal is scored, and when the ball hits the net he then blows the whistle for a defensive free-kick punishing the Rangers player for a challenge.
“The VAR then goes into a check and they quickly come to a conclusion after accessing the correct angle that there is no infringement. I would also say this is a normal footballing contact, something people have said to me ‘would this have been a penalty had it been against the attacker’ – for me this is normal footballing contact and would have been played on. VAR checks and realise the Rangers player has not committed a foul and they refer the referee to come to the screen for a review.”
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