It was another weekend of headline VAR decisions for both Glasgow giants, and of course their opponents. That meant the usual combination in Scotland of sensible decisions alongside the baffling and that’s how experts called it too. Former Premier League referee, Dermot Gallagher, cast his eye over some of the VAR penalty reviews in the weekend’s matches of St Mirren vs Celtic and Rangers vs Kilmarnock.
First up in the Celtic match was an early St Mirren penalty claim for a handball by Greg Taylor. David Dickinson, the referee on the pitch, didn’t give the penalty initially.
Many Celtic fans felt that Taylor couldn’t avoid the ball hitting him and had nowhere else for his arms to go. But Dickinson was asked to review it again on the pitch side monitor, before changing his mind and awarding the penalty for St Mirren.
On the other hand, there were big calls in the game involving the Rangers as well, as they were awarded a spot kick vs Kilmarnock. Of course, that has not been an unfamiliar sight for anyone who has kept up with Scottish football this season.
Ex-referee makes claim about Celtic and Rangers VAR decisions
As reported by Glasgow Live, while talking about the decision going against Celtic, Gallagher told Sky Sports:
"“It was a penalty. He moves his arm to the ball. Good VAR intervention.”"
He was not sure about the one given to the Rangers though, as he said:
"“Well the referee clearly can’t see where it struck him. There is no doubt about that. Only the VAR can when it shows it from behind the goal. My only surprise is when the referee sees this, I just don’t know where it hits him on the hand.”"
Although some may disagree, Celtic fans’ main issue about their VAR reviews is the usual point on consistency in what is handball these days, that differs from one match to the next, or one team to the next. The good thing is that the decisions did not end up having a huge impact on the results of the games on the weekend. But on another day, things could have ended up very differently.