Celtic fans have been angry on social media after a horrible call in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Hibernian, where the Hoops were denied a blatant penalty. A Hibs player pulled Liam Scales to the ground, but after a VAR check, the spot kick was not given.
Elsewhere, Rangers dropped points to Livingston, and their supporters feel that they were also robbed. In the final minutes of the game, Mikey Moore was fouled by Cammy Kerr. It was clearly outside of the box, unlike Celtic’s shout, but there was outrage over it not being given.
Even pundits such as Andy Halliday said that the player should have been sent off for the challenge, which we can agree with. The referee chose not even to give a free kick, which VAR can’t intervene with. Although their claim for a penalty is incorrect, this is another example of terrible standards in refereeing.
To make things worse, at Parkhead, moments earlier, Auston Trusty was shown red for “violent conduct” after hitting away the arms of an opposition player who was holding him. While it was a silly move for the American, the referee was happy to deal with it on the pitch before being called over for a VAR check.
This was a moment where VAR did not need to get involved, but that is the problem; it gets involved too often. We do not need VAR for every single decision. We have referees for a reason. If we’re slowing down someone trying to get someone off them, of course, it’s going to look worse.
If an official is called over to the monitor, they are essentially being told that they made a mistake, and even if they still disagree with VAR’s ruling, they’ll likely give it. It’s a problem that isn’t going away.
Celtic robbed, but not an excuse
Celtic were blatantly robbed by the referee and VAR, but that isn’t an excuse. The performance was terrible. The Hoops did not deserve anything from that game.
Trusty probably didn’t deserve to get sent off, but he shouldn’t have put himself in that situation in the first place. It was a moment of madness from the defender, and it really cost Celtic in the end.
We’re lucky that Rangers also lost because it means that a victory in our game in hand would still take us above them in the table. That shouldn’t be the case, because we don’t deserve it, but somehow, beyond all odds, we are still in this title race.
Standards need to drastically improve though, and quickly. If we go to Ibrox for our double-header against them and play as we did against Hibs, Celtic won’t even get a sniff.