The fallout around Rangers’ denied penalty as Celtic won the Premier Sports Cup final continues.
When Gers winger Vaclav Cerny fell to the ground after a foul by Liam Scales during extra-time, referee John Beaton quickly awarded a free-kick.
Replays have shown that the tug on Cerny happened INSIDE the box raising massive questions over why VAR didn’t award a penalty – as it was a factual decision that’s what should have happened rather than a review taking place.
Reports today state the Scottish FA have already admitted their blunder to Rangers and that will be made public this week.
Incoming Gers CEO Patrick Stewart had contacted the SFA to demand an explanation, as one of his first tasks in the hotseat.
Of course it doesn’t change anything from the Ibrox club’s point of view but Stewart’s quick exerting of pressure seems to have worked.
It comes after former referee Bobby Madden was among those insisting Rangers definitely should have had a penalty.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has now addressed the situation publicly.
- READ MORE: Chris Sutton attempt to troll Rangers over Connor Barron backfires as Aberdeen tribunal looms
Ian Maxwell in VAR claim after Rangers fallout
Maxwell claims VAR has made a difference in weeding out some of the poor decisions but human nature dictates they will still occur.
And he insists they will continue trying to eradicate them further.
Maxwell told PLZ Soccer: “Decisions will be wrong, that’s a given. We’ll eradicate them as much as we possibly can.
“VAR has done that in the vast majority of cases, but there are always going to be one or two that will fall outwith that, because there’s people involved.
“Anything that involves a person in any walk of life, there will be decisions made that don’t go the way we want them to, or are incorrect. That’s just part of human nature.”
Mark Wilson on what he saw of Rangers VAR blunder
What makes this decision worse is that it was a factual call – the VAR officials should simply have been able to view it on the screen, see it was outside the box and tell Beaton to award a penalty.
But former Celtic defender Mark Wilson revealed the decision seemed to be ‘brushed aside’ as he worked at the game as a pundit.
Speaking on Open Goal, he said: “The factual decision is it’s a penalty, it doesn’t even need to go to the screen.
“See at the time? Because where we’re sitting we’ve got the screen in front of us and it’s delayed like three seconds to what’s going on in the game.
“So we look right away because you think ‘that must be close’. But the replay seemed so quick, we’ve we’ve even got the VAR because Lenny (Neil Lennon) and Alan Hutton is just in front of us doing the co-comms.
“But I didn’t even see anything flash up. It was almost like it was just brushed aside.”
