Veteran sports journalist Hugh Keevins called out Ally McCoist’s fiery comments following the Scottish Cup Final, suggesting that McCoist’s heated critique of the match officials may be over the top.
McCoist, the former Rangers player and manager, did not hold back in his condemnation of referee Nick Walsh and VAR official John Beaton, labelling their performance as “scandalous” and “incompetent.”
In his column for the Daily Record, Keevins responded to McCoist’s remarks which one might expect from a raging old guy you’d find down in the pub.
Keevins reminded McCoist that the job of a commentator involves a degree of journalistic neutrality, which he feels McCoist disregarded in his impassioned critique.
Keevins wrote: “My old pal Ally might need a three-tier cake on a trolley after his post-cup final outburst regarding the match officials.
“’Scandalous’ and ‘incompetent’ were the words he attributed to ref Nick Walsh and VAR John Beaton. Ex-players in commentary boxes and broadcast studios have lately taken to adopting a more openly partisan stance and overlooking journalistic neutrality. The job’s not a piece of cake but there needs to be some restraint.”
The VAR intervention that led Walsh to review and subsequently disallow a Rangers goal due to a foul on Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart was the correct call, and it’s worrying that some in the media can’t accept that. The VAR system performed as intended, correcting what could have been a pivotal error in a major cup final.
