SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum has finally broken his silence on the VAR decision not to intervene and award Rangers a penalty against Celtic.
The aftermath of the Premier Sports Cup Final, where Rangers and Celtic played out a 3-3 draw before the Parkhead side won 5-4 on penalties, has been dominated by coverage of the controversial decision.
Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny was hauled down by Celtic defender Liam Scales on the edge of the box with John Beaton giving Scales a yellow card and awarding a free kick.
But replays proved that Cerny was inside the box when Scales was pulling the winger, with the VAR failing to apply IFAB’s rule 12 and award a penalty.
Philippe Clement was incensed come full time, whilst incoming Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart has been in contact with the SFA.
Now, Willie Collum has spoken to the VAR Review Show and has admitted that – whilst all is not as it appears – the VAR team got the decision wrong.
VAR Rangers penalty audio released
The SFA have released the audio from the incident, which includes VAR Alan Muir communicating with AVAR Frank Connor.
With the assistant referee and John Beaton both believing the foul was outside the box, the VAR team rush over the incident without the proper ‘forensic’ analysis.
At the same time, the AVAR is noting the yellow card for Liam Scales and not paying proper attention to the incident, with the VAR eventually asking if the assistant agrees that it is outside the box.
Here’s a transcript:
VAR: Pull.
SAR: Outside, looks just outside.
AVAR: Number five
VAR: He’s just outside the penalty area. There’s not much more than that. You can see he’s just outside there. It’s really close. It’s more outside, then it goes there. Agree? Really close.
AVAR: 100%
VAR: Reset that.
REFEREE: We all good to go in the VAR centre?
VAR: Yeah we’re good to go. No on going checks.
Rangers should’ve had penalty kick v Celtic
First Willie Collum was asked about the incident and whether or not it was a free-kick.
Going through the incident, Collum clears up the conversation surrounding Vaclav Cerny’s foot, with images showing the Czech international standing in the box.
Collum explains that this is ‘irrelevant’ to the decision-making and that the shirt pull should’ve been the focus of the VAR team’s attentions.
Going on to explain that the pull continues along the line and then even potentially into the box, Willie Collum could not be clearer here.
Rangers should’ve had a penalty kick in extra time of a cup final they lost on penalties to Celtic.
”There’s a holding incident we need to assess here,” said Collum. “The holding is the key part of this decision.
”It’s really, really important. There’s been a lot said Gordon about the Rangers player has a foot on the penalty area line.
”The foot is actually irrelevant in this case, it’s about the holding and the holding only because that’s where the contact is.
”The holding begins outside the penalty area and then it continues on the line and even arguably beyond the line and fully into the penalty area.
”But regardless the fact it’s on the line, this should be considered as a penalty kick.
”So the referee has awarded a free kick on field because he sees the pulling, he’s correctly judged the incident in terms of the foul play.
”But then the VAR team need to go into a check and they need to decide whether this incident is inside or outside.
”And ultimately they failed to come to the correct conclusion which is this should’ve been a factual overturn – no need for the referee to go to the monitor – for a penalty kick to be awarded.”
Willie Collum explains where VAR went wrong
Next Willie Collum was asked about the failures of the VAR team in making the decision and why they came to the wrong conclusion.
Claiming that they were focused too much on the bulk of Cerny’s body being outside the box, ultimately Collum believes that the team did not take enough time to analyse the situation.
And whilst the referee chief admits that the decision ‘is very difficult to accept’, Collum is keen to learn from the gravity of the game changing call.
”People need to take time to make sure is the holding inside, outside?” Collum said.
”Ultimately when you look at the TV pictures here this is not a difficult decision for the VAR team.
”They are not forensic enough in the analysis. They move far too quickly.
”I think they are thrown because the majority of the Rangers player’s body is outside of the penalty area, but that’s irrelevant.
”Because it’s the holding that they should be judging and they should be making sure they get a clear image to show them that that continues into the penalty area.
”We’ve dissected this incident because people will obviously hear me saying today that it’s wrong, but that’s not enough.
”We need to now understand why did we get it wrong and how do we make things better, how do we improve, what’s the lessons learned from this incident?
”Because people will find it very hard to accept this error, it’s very difficult to accept it.
”So the VAR when he’s checking the incident, my understanding and my opinion is, he’s probably focused too much on the Rangers player, most of his body being outside.
”He doesn’t then analyse the holding enough and he then says to the AVAR, who is supporting him, the AVAR is noting down the yellow card for the Celtic player at the time.
”He’s focused on the paper work. That’s a learning point. We should park the paper work, we can catch up with the paper work.
”The focus needs to be on the decision. The ball is dead. The AVAR is not watching live play.
”It’s an opportunity for the team of VAR officials to focus on the incident and the incident alone.
”But the VAR asks the AVAR, ‘it’s outside, do you agree?’, so even small details like that. That’s a closed question.
”We’ve said to the VARs moving forward, we’ve had them in on Monday, we’ve had them in on Thursday, the top match officials, to say we need a question here, ‘look at this incident, assess it for yourself’.
”And then there’s more of an opportunity for the VAR to assess that from a neutral standpoint rather than be clouded about what the VAR has said.
”So more of an understanding for the AVAR to look at it from a neutral point of view than what the VAR has said.”
SFA chief promises post-Rangers accountability
Finally, Willie Collum was asked about accountability and what is going to be done to ensure such situations never arise again.
On top of that, Rangers want action taken for the incompetence of the refereeing team which ultimately played a huge role in the club losing out on the Premier Sports Cup trophy.
Explaining that all disciplinary measures are private, Collum has assured supporters that referees will be accountable for their actions.
”By firstly acknowledging that it’s a really, really poor decision,” said Collum when asked how the SFA will take accountability.
”It’s an unacceptable decision. The VAR team know that, everybody in refereeing knows it. It’s unacceptable.
”We will do our very, very best through our coaching, through our analysis to make sure an incident like this never happens again.
”It’s a mistake, but it’s a bad mistake.
”You talk about accountability. I was very open when I took up this role at the start of the season there would be accountability in refereeing.
”I told the media, I told the managers that we would deal with things internally, there would be accountability but we’ve been consistent with that throughout the season. I can assure people of that.
”I did say that if match officials find themselves not involved in future matches or we need to change the profile of a match for somebody, we won’t come out and publicly say that.
”The way it happens that a manager doesn’t come out and publicly talk about, you know, he’s maybe taken a player out.
”We’ve also got a responsibility to protect the wider group of the referees, and we’ve also got a real responsibility to protect the match officials involved in this as well.
”What I am assuring you as I sit here today is there is accountability in refereeing but there’s been accountability consistently since I’ve taken up post.”
