KMI panel deems crucial Celtic penalty against Motherwell during Hearts title fight to be wrong call

The independent KMI group has judged that referee John Beaton was wrong to penalise Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson following a VAR check for a handball infringement in the 99th minute of the game against Celtic at Fir Park on Wednesday, May 13.

Kelechi Iheanacho stepped up to convert the penalty and give Celtic a 3-2 win, which kept the gap between them and then leaders Hearts to a solitary point going into the two teams’ title showdown three days later.

Had the match ended in a draw, Celtic would have required to have beaten Hearts by three goals to become champions, but due to the victory over Motherwell, they just needed to win the match at Parkhead to topple the Jambos - which they ended up doing 3-1.

The decision to hand Celtic a penalty attracted global condemnation and while head of referees Willie Collum was reported to have given his backing to officials for the call, the KMI panel has since decided that a spot-kick should not have been awarded while commenting that incident was a particularly tough one for referees to deal with.

It is a judgement that is likely to further enrage Hearts, whose head coach Derek McInnes called the award “disgusting” after watching the incident back at Tynecastle after his own team won 3-0 against Falkirk.

The backlash to the spot-kick award was ferocious and widespread, with former England striker Gary Lineker saying it “might be the worst VAR decision I’ve seen”. Beaton was subsequently put under police protection after his personal details were leaked online last week.

The majority of the panel agreed that an intervention by the VAR Andrew Dallas should not have happened and that the eventual awarding of the penalty was incorrect.

The KMI verdict read: “The majority (2:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision of play on to be correct. Two panel members felt VAR was incorrect to intervene and the penalty was incorrectly awarded for handball after OFR (on-field review).

“One panel member felt that VAR was correct to intervene and a penalty should have been awarded.”

The incident was given a difficulty rating of five, with the panel noting: “A particularly tough decision that all referees would struggle with. The type of judgement where technology is needed to support officials.”

The KMI panel also unanimously agreed that Celtic were right to be awarded a penalty in their match against Hearts when Kieran Tierney saw his cross blocked by Alexandros Kyziridis.