It has been confirmed that Steven McLean will take charge of Celtic’s visit to Pittodrie this Saturday.
He is a referee who hasn’t been short of controversy in recent years as he was most infamously the man in the middle for Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Last season, many called for an investigation into his performance after he took charge of Celtic’s cup tie against Raith Rovers, letting the opposition away with persistent fouling [Glasgow Times].
Before Scottish football headed into the World Cup break, there had been all sorts of controversy around the introduction of VAR.
Whenever the technology was to be introduced, it was important that it didn’t become the main talking point but it very quickly did as majority of teams in the SPFL Premiership felt aggrieved about some decisions.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of penalties handed out alongside Celtic having been on the receiving end of very dubious handball decisions.
Taking charge of the VAR this weekend will be Kevin Clancy and now that officials have had more time with the technology, there should be an improvement.
However, that just isn’t likely to be the case and having already had the date brought forward to use VAR there is likely to be zero improvements made.
