Alistair Johnston has expressed his frustration over the controversial VAR decision that ruled out Daizen Maeda’s equaliser in Celtic’s 2-1 defeat to Hibernian on Saturday.
The full-back, who whipped in the cross for Maeda, remains unconvinced by the ruling and believes the on-field officials should have been trusted, with the linesman and referee giving the goal.
The lack of definitive camera angles has been a major talking point, with Johnston adamant that VAR should not have intervened.
He raised concerns about the lack of proper technology, suggesting that Scottish football’s VAR system isn’t equipped to make such calls with certainty.
Talking to RecordSport, he said: “I felt like it was in. Obviously the official on my side thought it was in and everyone in the park thought it was in. I still have to see an angle which proves with 100 percent certainty that it was out.
“And if that’s the case, then normally you should go with what the officials that are at the pitch, who are making decisions and are paid to make decisions, have gone with. So I think that’s kind of the frustrating thing with how it was overturned.
“With VAR, if they’re to intervene there, there has to be a clear and obvious error. And I don’t think that we have, whether it’s not in the budget or whatever, the camera angles exactly where they need to be. The best camera angle I actually saw that was sent to me was from someone in the stands, which is kind of mental when you really think about it.
“For me, if you’re going to do VAR, you’ve got to do it the right way. It’s not going to be a coin flip again, whether that was in or out.
“And I think that’s kind of as a player pool, not just as a Celtic player, but any player around the world, that’s just kind of what you want from the referees and from VAR. Ideally that’s what VAR is supposed to implement, a level of consistency.”
Johnston’s frustrations echo those of manager Brendan Rodgers, who also questioned how VAR official Alan Muir could confidently overturn the goal.
With no clear image proving the ball was fully out, Celtic are still waiting for the SFA to provide definitive evidence to back up the decision. CeltsAreHere revealed on Monday that the club had approached the SFA to see the images that VAR had looked at, to see if they were conclusive.
It doesn’t really change much now with the game over, but had that gone 2-2 at the time, Celtic would’ve had the momentum to push for a third and winning goal.
