Pundit and former Celtic hero Chris Sutton has responded to Graeme Souness’ claims that he was trying to influence VAR and the decision to award Rangers a penalty in Sunday’s Glasgow derby.
Speaking on talkSport (via RecordSport), Souness accused his fellow pundit of bias, labelling his opinion ’embarrassing’.
Since then, however, Sutton has hit back. He said: [RecordSport] “He is talking utter nonsense to suggest I was trying to somehow influence VAR.
“It would have been better if Nick Walsh WAS watching Sky Sports – as the officials might have made the right call rather than rewarding cheating.
“I’m not sure what kind of power Graeme thinks I wield. Does he think I’m God?! I don’t have that kind of sway unfortunately – give me another few months!
“In seriousness, it wasn’t a Celtic thing or a Rangers thing, I just called that incident as I saw it.
“Having watched it over and over again, NOTHING has changed my mind about the incident. It is still not a penalty kick.”
Common sense tells one that Fabio Silva exaggerated the contact with Alistair Johnston and that the Canadian right-back got the ball. John Beaton’s initial decision was correct.
He was overruled by VAR, though, and last night, it was revealed that Celtic have written to the SFA asking for answers on the debacle.
They believe Beaton was shown incomplete footage of the incident on the VAR monitor; Johnston’s contact with the ball was not on display rather just his slight contact with Silva’s leg.
The club want answers to this, as well as the fact that IFAB guidelines were perhaps misinterpreted. A penalty should be given if a tackle that initially plays the ball is deemed to be executed carelessly, recklessly, or with excessive force but Celtic believe Johnston’s didn’t fall into any of these criteria.
Rightfully, the Hoops are not backing down. Souness can talk all he likes about Sutton showing bias and the like, but you simply can’t get away from cold hard evidence and the official laws of the game.
