Two former Scottish referees have ripped into the VAR decision that saw Celtic’s goal against Hibs wrongly disallowed, branding it as bad as they feared and danming.
Tweeting from The Ref’s View podcast account, ex-SFA officials Des Roache and Steve Conroy were scathing in their criticism after the VAR Review Show confirmed that Alan Muir guessed the decision when he intervened to rule out Daizen Maeda’s goal.
“Yeah, it’s as bad and damning as we thought. There is absolutely no way that goal should have been overturned.”
“Alan Muir has made two calls in a VAR room this year regarding decisions on a line and guessed them. Willie doesn’t cover himself in glory either, a total mess.”
The Scottish FA’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel has already admitted VAR should never have intervened and that the goal should have stood. The on-field referee Steven McLean awarded the goal, but VAR official Alan Muir insisted the ball had gone out of play, despite no conclusive evidence.
The full VAR discussion was released, and it makes grim reading. The AVAR repeatedly stated there was no conclusive angle, yet VAR (Alan Muir) still pushed for an overturn.
Even SFA Head of Referees Willie Collum admitted VAR got it wrong, saying:
“You need 100 per cent conclusive evidence to disallow the goal. And in this case, that is not possible. So, on this occasion, we expect the on-field decision to be supported and a goal awarded.”
The frustration with VAR in Scotland continues to grow, and with former referees calling out the lack of consistency, questions will keep being asked about the competence of those in the VAR room. Celtic may not get the dropped points back, but the criticism is mounting—and changes are needed.
