Scottish FA admit Rangers penalty error in Celtic cup final defeat as VAR team stood down

The Scotsman understands that during a discussion between new Ibrox chief executive Patrick Stewart and Willie Collum, SFA Head of Referee Operations, it was admitted that a mistake was made when VAR officials failed to alert referee John Beaton that Celtic centre-half Liam Scales’ tug on Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny’s jersey occurred on the line, rather than just outside the box. Instead of giving a penalty. Beaton awarded a foul just outside the box from which James Tavernier shot over the bar.

Collum is set to address the incident in the SFA’s own VAR Review Show scheduled to be recorded and aired this week.

It is the latest VAR error set to be flagged by the Key Match Incident panel. This weekly report from a five-person committee looking back at selected incidents in the previous weekend’s fixtures will be published on Friday.

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Stewart, who has given his first interview since officially starting at the Ibrox club on Monday, has spoken to SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell as well as Collum with reference to the incident, which took place three minutes into extra time with the score locked at 3-3. Rangers later lost a penalty shootout 5-4.

Stewart described the beginning of his tenure as “bittersweet” given the defeat. “Yesterday was my first day and we were still licking our wounds from Sunday,” he said. “It was a disappointing manner of defeat but we can take a lot from it.”

He later confirmed that he had felt compelled to be in touch with the SFA about refereeing already. “As people will know, I have spoken with the SFA for an explanation about the non-awarding of a penalty in extra-time,” he said. “I’ll wait to hear what the SFA have to say about that.”

It’s understood the SFA believe they have already offered all the explanation possible: the officials erred. Neither VAR referee Alan Muir nor his assistant Frank Connor have been allocated games this weekend, although Beaton will be in charge of Hearts v St Johnstone on Sunday.

Whether this placates Rangers remains to be seen. Ibrox manager Philippe Clement could not hide his anger after the game and urged reporters to “dig into it”. He added that his phone was already “overloaded” with images just minutes after the end of the game highlighting where the foul had occurred.

Stewart, speaking to Rangers TV, said he “didn’t want to dwell on the cup final – but it could have been such a memorable day”. He added that the manner of the defeat was “hard to take”. However, he said there was a lot of optimism to take from it.

He also accepted there were challenges ahead to address alongside new non-executive chairman Fraser Thornton. “There’s a lot we can be proud of in terms of what’s been achieved so far, perhaps in trying circumstances, over the past seven months in particular,” he said. Rangers are currently third in the Premiership, two points behind second-placed Aberdeen and 11 adrift of leaders Celtic.

“There’s been no secret that on the park we are not where we want to be in term of trophies,” added Stewart. “Off the park, the agm results were there for all to see.” The club recently announced a £17.2 million loss for the year to June, despite revenue of £88.3 million.

“Sometimes the wider perception for Rangers hasn't been where we want it to be so there are challenges there,” continued Stewart. “But equally, we've got some really strong foundations to build from."