Brendan Rodgers has questioned VAR official John Beaton’s decisions to send referee Don Robertson to the monitor twice during Celtic’s defeat to Hearts.
Despite Robertson judging Yang Hyun-Jun’s foul on Alex Cochrane to be a yellow and Tomoki Iwata’s handball not to be a penalty, Beaton on VAR called on Robertson to review each decision, leading to a red card for Yang and a penalty for Hearts.
Rodgers said (Sky Sports), “I never like to comment on officials, but that cost us today, the officiating, from on field to John Beaton on VAR. That cost us.”
Rodgers was clearly bemused by VAR’s intervention in the game, which ultimately shifted momentum in Hearts’ favour, with the negative side of VAR there for all to see in a disappointing afternoon for Celtic.
In all honesty, if a red card and penalty were not given, not many would have batted an eyelid.
But the stop-start nature of VAR meant Robertson was forced to review his own decision in real-time, implementing seeds of doubt in his mind over each decision.
Celtic are in action next against Livingston at Celtic Park next Sunday in the Scottish Cup, with the Hoops desperate to bounce back from defeat at Tynecastle.
