Rangers have demanded the audio around a controversial VAR penalty call in the club’s defeat to Celtic as the SFA scramble to justify the decision.
The Gers were denied what seemed like a stonewall penalty in the first half of the club’s 2-1 Scottish Premiership defeat at Celtic Park.
Parkhead right-back Alistair Johnston appeared to handle the ball away from Abdallah Sima in the Celtic box with the Rangers forward just yards from goal.
Despite being subject to a review at the time, Willie Collum in the VAR room and Steven McLean on the pitch awarded a goal-kick.
Rangers to demand penalty audio from SFA
Replays showed that Johnston clearly makes a movement towards the ball as he tugs on Sima’s jersey and knocks the ball out of play in the Old Firm clash.
Later in the game, the VAR team appeared to claim that Abdallah Sima was offside in the build up to the decision and now Rangers want to know if it was discussed at the time by asking the SFA for the audio.
At least that’s according to the likes of STV, who claim that Rangers are “aggrieved” over the decision.
If the audio does not prove that the refereeing team came to this conclusion on the pitch, it would suggest that those in the VAR room have sought to seek a late justification for their error.
In the still used to justify the decision, the ball has also clearly left John Lundstram’s boot – a vitally important detail in getting offside calls correctly – whilst the lines drawn on the park do not run parallel to Joe Hart’s goal-line.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement did not accept the offside justification after the match, claiming that he does not “believe” that this is why the penalty call was initially denied.
The word from the referees on this is that Willie Collum did not believe it was a “clear and obvious” error not to blow for the penalty and that any review would lead to the penalty being denied due to Sima being offside.
However, former grade one referee Steve Conroy has claimed that this would not be the case because VAR can only use retrospective offside calls to intervene if there is a consequence such as a goal.
The whistler has branded the claims “irrelevant” to the situation with Rangers also demanding greater clarity on the application of the rules from the VAR team.
Celtic conspiracies crank up referee pressure
The entire thing is complicated by regular claims of penalty conspiracies from Celtic-minded voices and the club themselves, who point to the Rangers team benefitting from spot kicks.
The suggestion is that the Scottish game is corrupt and bent in the favour of Rangers, something which a series of decisions in this match prove is patently false.
If anything, the fact that Rangers were denied this penalty and that the under fire SFA referees are now scrambling to justify the decision is evidence that the pressure surrounding the conspiracies is having an impact.
Not only were Rangers denied what – in the context of the circumstances and the rules – is a stonewall penalty kick but Celtic players were protected on yellow cards despite making some brutal challenges.
Both Alistair Johnston and Paulo Bernardo were lucky to remain on the park with Philippe Clement asking if “we need to discuss” this situation at full-time.
Rangers were defeated 2-1 at Celtic Park courtesy of two fine strikes from first Paolo Bernardo and then Kyogo Furuhashi, before Ibrox captain James Tavernier slammed in a stunning free kick.
The situation surrounding the conditions of the match, from the awful refereeing to the SPFL refusing to enforce its own ticketing allocation rules, has resulted in a sense of injustice around the game.
Leon Balogun was also sent off the second half of the match, Steven McLean not showing a smidgen of the hesitation he had when making big calls on Celtic in the game.
