Celtic have asserted that referee Matthew MacDermid said in the VAR audio that Auston Trusty’s red-card incident against Hibs was “nothing”.
This was before the official was directed to the pitchside monitor and Trusty was dismissed for violent conduct during the second half of Sunday’s 2-1 loss. The defender aggressively swatted away Jamie McGrath’s arm at a corner kick.
VAR official Grant Irvine stepped in and summoned the referee to review the footage at the monitor after which he handed the US international a straight red card. Celtic manager O’Neill described the decision as “harsh” on the centre-half.
He revealed that MacDermid had originally intended to issue a warning to both McGrath and Trusty. The Hoops confirmed on Monday that they would challenge the decision.
However, officials at Hampden swiftly rejected the appeal, meaning the centre-back will now be sidelined for the next three matches. The suspension starts with the pivotal derby clash against Rangers on Sunday.
A Celtic statement read: “We are hugely disappointed at today’s decision, which will now result in Auston Trusty being suspended for three matches after an “arm to arm” contact as he looked to release himself from being held prior to the ball coming into play – the kind of incident which features in games across the country week in week out.
“The match audio demonstrates that the referee saw the incident clearly. Immediately following the incident, the referee said: “It’s nothing, I’m just going to speak to them” in terms of no further action being required.
“In discussions with Celtic Manager Martin O’Neill after the match this was something he also confirmed.
“However, VAR again decided to intervene to ‘re-referee’ an initial decision which had been made.
“While we await the written judgement, this and other decisions in the match and in other recent games demonstrate a serious issue with VAR and its current deployment which needs urgently reviewed.”