When John Souttar stayed on the pitch against Hibs there was a lot of noise from their fans, and those from another club.
Fortunately Jack Butland saved the penalty from Mykola Kuharevich, Souttar stayed on the pitch and Rangers were able to go on and win the game.
In fact, the centre-back wasn’t carded at all after his intervention to block a goalbound effort from the same Hibs striker, with a VAR check confirming it should be a spot kick but nothing else.
That caused quite a bit of consternation around supporters of other clubs but the SFA have now moved to explain how things unfolded at Ibrox that day.
Why Souttar escaped a Rangers card vs Hibs
In the second episode of The VAR Review, refs’ chief Willie Collum has addressed the incident.
VAR audio shows that Kevin Clancy informed referee Nick Walsh a penalty should be awarded but both went on to a agree that no card was warranted.
And Collum said: “It’s a correct decision for us. It’s very, very close, there’s no question about that. But we think that the Rangers defender throws himself in to save the shot or block the shot at all costs. Unfortunately for him here, he’s made his body bigger and it’s not natural.
“It can be easier to justify a natural position when you’re standing. But when you dive to block a shot, it makes it even more difficult to defend such an arm movement. There’s also a slight arm movement, albeit I don’t think it’s deliberate, but I agree with the on-field referee team and the VAR team that it’s not a deliberate handball, but certainly a punishable handball.”
Moving on to the card issue, he explained the fact that Jack Butland could have made a save was what saved Souttar.
“Here, there’s every opportunity that the goalkeeper can save this shot,” he added. “The fact that no card was shown could be debated. If the referee had deemed John Souttar’s actions as deliberate, he probably would have received a yellow card for blocking a shot deliberately at such close range from the goal.
“But because the referee and the VAR team don’t deem this as a deliberate handball, there’s no need for a yellow card because that was removed from the laws of the game. We would not support a red card. this is not an obvious goalscoring opportunity because the goalkeeper has the opportunity to save this shot.”
Did Rangers keeper Jack Butland stray off his line?
There were also claims that Jack Butland had moved off his line before the kick was taken and he saved it, even though footage showed the back of his foot was on the line.
“We’re content,” said Collum. “It’s important when you analyse a clip like this that you get the accurate point when the kicker takes the penalty. You hear the VAR describing the goalkeeper’s back foot being on the line. He says it’s just on the line, which I would accept. On, behind or above the line.
“It’s absolutely correct in terms of law. They’ve used the correct criteria, taken their time to analyse if the kick point is correct and analysed where the goalkeeper is. You can see the foot is on the line and you can see that technically, this is a correct decision.”
