As Brendan Rodgers faces an SFA charge for comments made about VAR, the Celtic manager has certainly changed his tune from an early call v Rangers.
Way back in September last year, stuttering Celtic defender Gustaf Lagerbielke had his blushes spared by the refereeing technology when he was robbed by Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers.
The big Nigerian forward then found Kemar Roofe, who sent a raucous Ibrox delirious with the opening goal in the game before a VAR review led to the strike being ruled out.
It is a quite remarkable decision in retrospect, with the Celtic defender appearing to catch the Rangers striker before collapsing after being beaten to the ball.
Brendan Rodgers defended VAR v Rangers
The moment was a crucial one in the match, with Celtic going on to win the game 1-0 and Rangers boos ringing out at now former manager Michael Beale.
Speaking after the game, Brendan Rodgers was a tad more understanding towards the officials and not quite as apoplectic as he was following Celtic’s 2-0 defeat to Hearts.
“Rangers will probably say it was never a foul,” Rodgers told BBC Sport after the game. “I think obviously the referees, there’s enough officials looking at it and they obviously deemed it to be that.”
This is in stark contrast to the Celtic manager’s comments after VAR twice intervened v Hearts, leading first to Yang’s now upheld red card and then to a controversial Hearts handball penalty award.
Branding the officials “incompetent”, the Celtic manager played the old ‘for the good of the game’ card before suggesting football is now being refereed “off the pitch”.
Celtic manager heading for seat in Ibrox crowd?
Spare us the holier than thou stuff please, Brendan.
VAR must only be a major problem when decisions go against Celtic but thankfully the footballing Gods have a way of evening these things out over a season.
That’s not to say the referee was wrong to give these decisions against Celtic, but where you rationalise a bone of contention in one respect but not in the other, it suggests you really cannot be taken seriously.
That kind of one-sided bias is part of being a fan for sure but as for the managers, there’s a reason why Brendan Rodgers could be sitting in the stand when his side visit Rangers next month.
That aforementioned footballing karma may well be in full effect too, with the Celtic manager accused of “dog-whistling” to pro-Rangers conspiracies to deflect from his own shortcomings.
