Scottish football’s VAR Independent Review Panel has provided its report on the recent group of fixtures and, despite experiencing controversy in his time at Rangers, Philippe Clement has had his name checked.
The Gers boss is a firey character, with two touchside yellow cards to his name already, but it would appear that he is still a popular figure within the walls of the SFA.
Speaking on the announcement of the findings, referees chief Crawford Allan has been talking about Rangers manager Philippe Clement.
Rangers boss Philippe Clement gets praise from unlikely source
Out of the 13 incidents that VAR officials made mistakes with, three involved Rangers.
Jose Cifuentes shouldn’t have been sent off after initially being given a yellow card, in fact, VAR shouldn’t have interfered at all.
Then there was the penalty that saw our infamous league penalty record end when John Souttar was penalised for handball, despite his hand being in a natural position.
The biggest though, was the controversial Old Firm derby that led to Rangers requesting to hear the audio of Willie Collum’s role as VAR and the decision-making process with on-pitch whistler Nick Walsh.
When asked before the recent Scottish Cup tie against Ayr United, Rangers boss Philippe Clement was quick to confirm that he didn’t have any issues with Collum being in charge at Ibrox:
“I’m happy, to be honest.
“When there’s one moment I think a referee isn’t neutral I would quit my job, so I’m happy we can leave the past behind.”
These are the remarks that Crawford has been quick to praise in a situation that could have spiraled had Clement poured fuel on the fire.
Instead though, he nipped it in the bud with the ref’s chief thanking the Gers boss:
“That was very helpful. I think that comment was very supportive”.
As fans, we can vent or complain as much as we want but, for all that we’d love Philippe Clement to go on a rant about the standard of officiating, Rangers simply won’t gain anything out of it.
Not that we are asking for favours, just an improvement in the standards, but for one team to have three VAR errors against them out of 13 in total for the league is strange.
“How many for Celtic?” – I hear you ask.
Zero.
And the worst conspiracy in the world survives to fight another day.
