Celtic have been on the receiving end of an almighty VAR mess-up, with a Daizen Maeda goal ruled out for handball.

However, the handball isn’t where the issue lies.

The problem is that Maeda was through on goal, one-on-one with Aston Oxborough, when Motherwell defender Stephen O’Donnell fouled the Japanese winger by pushing him to the ground, denying him a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

🤥 “Well that was clear…”

Bit of confusion as Celtic thought they’d doubled their lead but the goal was disallowed for handball – although should they have had a penalty? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/zqdKWgkAqG

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 27, 2024

If O’Donnell doesn’t bring Maeda down, he has a clear opportunity to score.

While the decision by David Dickinson to rule the goal out for handball is correct, he has ultimately been let down by his VAR team.

Dickinson should have been sent to the monitor to review the foul and consider awarding a penalty.

This incident will likely go down as one of the biggest VAR blunders of the season, with Alan Muir on VAR making the wrong decision.

Not allowing Dickinson to see the incident from a different angle has meant that he appears at fault, while those on VAR, Muir and Gary Hilland can see every angle.

This is certainly a poor showing from VAR, a problem that has affected Celtic since its inception in Scotland in October 2022.