Two days on from Rangers’ Premier Sports Cup penalty kicks defeat to Celtic and the controversial non-award of an extra time penalty continues to dominate headlines.
Vaclav Cerny was awarded a foul when Liam Scales, who was later yellow carded for the incident, hauled the Czech winger down as he cut across the Celtic 18-yard line.
Replays prove that Cerny’s foot was inside the box with Philippe Clement incensed at full-time that his side were not awarded a deserved penalty kick.
Ex-referees such as Bobby Madden have also waded into the controversy by asking why VAR didn’t intervene to award Rangers the penalty.
And now it’s the turn of former grade one official Mike McCurry who has explained to the Rangers Review that the Ibrox side should’ve been awarded a penalty.
McCurry has also brought into question the resulting silence from the SFA on the incident, with new referees’ chief Willie Collum previously quick to offer clarity in the wake of such high profile decisions.
Mike McCurry on Willie Collum ‘silence’ and Rangers penalty call
“I think most people that have seen it or have seen that still would say 100% the correct decision there is a penalty kick to Rangers,” Mike McCurry told the Rangers Review.
”I don’t fault John (Beaton) at all, with John’s angle, he could never see that.
“We’re in a day and an age where we’ve had goals disallowed with offside because of the width of a toenail, as one manager would say.
”VAR really need to be involved in that. The difficulty that I really have with this decision is the working out.
“We don’t really know whether VAR scrutinised that decision or whether they just had a cursory glance at it and just said ‘go with the on field decision’ or whether they didn’t look at it at all.
”One of the problems there I feel, the SFA could come out and clarify that very, very quickly and very easily.
”Willie Collum has in the past come out very quickly and clarified a situation and yet what we’ve got two days on is silence from them.
”I’ve seen and I’ve heard a number of people saying ‘the shirt pull starts outside the box, it continues inside the box, it’s on the line, is the line part of the box?’
”The bottom line is the field markings, the line is part of the penalty area so if your foot is on the line, you’re inside the box.
”That’s why the laws of the game say that for a goal to be scored, the whole of the ball has to cross the line.
”Law 12 fouls and misconduct clearly says separately that if a shirt pull starts outside of the penalty area and continues inside the penalty area the referee must give a penalty kick.
”So in that situation there is no doubts about the correct decision there being a penalty kick.”
Ex-referee has plan for greater transparency
Mike McMurry has also expressed his concerns over how the VAR team reached the decision after John Beaton had blown for a foul.
The referee claims he has a ‘concern’ over how the VAR team scrutinised the foul after the Rangers winger had been hauled down by the Celtic defender.
Claiming that the referees did not have the time to ‘scrutinise’ the decision properly, McMurry has also suggested that Scottish football could offer greater transparency by providing referee audio.
The former referee has also claimed this is something clubs could capitalise on financially by offering headsets to supporters.
It comes with new Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart contacting the SFA demand answers over the decision.
“My concern is the outworking or the interaction with VAR,” McMurry said.
”If I’m John Beaton there and I’m giving a decision that is that close and the margin is so tight on it, I want to know that VAR has had a good look at that.
”If I’m John Beaton I’d be wanting VAR not to just have a cursory glance but to scrutinise that and in the time that passed VAR might have had a cursory look at that and just said ‘go with the on-field decision’.
”I don’t think they had time to scrutinise it properly and again one of the ways that clarifies all of that for clubs and for spectators, and would make money for clubs I have to say, is allow the public, as in rugby, to actually hear the audio between referee and VAR or the referee and his assistants.
”People who would have attended games that I refereed might’ve got some explanation from me on-field talking to referees, talking to assistants.
”You see it rugby, you see it in snooker, £2 to hire a head seat, if you’ve got 55k in the ground, clubs are making another £110k in income or whatever it would be.
”It allows spectators to really get an insight into what’s really going on without all this cloak and dagger stuff at the moment (which) silences a game.”
