It has been a couple of days full of activity at Ibrox. After their defeat at the hands of St Mirren, the club decided to part ways with Philippe Clement. The Belgian manager was replaced by Barry Ferguson as head coach until the end of the season. Naturally, that entire situation has constantly been in the headlines. But that does not mean that it has been a quiet weekend for Celtic.
Celtic lost at the weekend as well, away against Hibernian. But the match was not without its controversy as a late equaliser from Daizen Maeda was ruled out.
The on-field officials had given the goal. But VAR intervened and adjudged that the ball had gone out of play before Alistair Johnston had put the cross in for Maeda to score.
The issue is, there was no clear camera angle which suggested that the ball had definitely gone out of play. Even while taking a look at the lead-up to the goal in slow motion after the match, there is plenty of doubt. So, in a situation like this, perhaps VAR should have stuck with the decision of the on-field referees.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers takes subtle dig at Rangers
Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, appeared to take a subtle dig at the Rangers. As reported by STV News, he said:
"We go through the process, we don’t make statements and all sorts of things. We just go through the procedure and the process, which is the club speak to the SFA and just get a feeling of what they think."
Of course, there is a team in Glasgow that is famous for releasing statements, even in situations that do not demand one. They do not wear green-and-white.
It remains to be seen how this entire situation will transpire. At this point, it is no longer a matter of whether the ball had gone out of play or not. It is about whether the VAR had conclusive evidence that it had. If the answer is no then they should not have overturned the decision of the referees and Celtic's goal vs Hibernian should have stood.