'Something rotten': Former SFA referee weighs in on Celtic penalty award as VAR boss called out

Celtic were given a spot-kick by referee John Beaton in the 96th minute of their match at Motherwell on Wednesday night after he was sent to the VAR monitor by Andrew Dallas for a handball offence against Sam Nicholson. Kelechi Iheanacho converted to earn Celtic a 3-2 victory which keeps them one point behind leaders Hearts at the top of the Premiership table ahead of the title decider between the two sides at Parkhead on Saturday.

Had the match at Fir Park finished 2-2, then Hearts, who defeated Falkirk 3-0 at Tynecastle, would have had a three point and plus six goal difference advantage over Celtic heading into the final day. They would have had to lose by three goals at Celtic Park to miss out on clinching their first title in 66 years. Now, any win for Celtic will see them crowned champions for a fifth successive season with Hearts needing to avoid defeat.

The decision to penalise Nicholson, who had his hand in front of his face as he headed a long throw-in out of the box while challenging Celtic's Auston Trusty, has sparked criticism across the football world.

Hearts manager Derek McInnes branded the award "disgusting" while former England international Gary Lineker said it was "the worst VAR decision he had ever seen” in a social media post.

Ex-category one referee Steve Conroy, who retired from officiating in 2012, agreed that the VAR intervention was the wrong call and accused his former employers, the Scottish FA, of overseeing a broken system.

"I think it's glaringly obvious now that there is a systemic failure in how we are using VAR," he told BBC Radio Scotland. "The whole reason we have VAR is to correct clear and obvious errors. There was no clear and obvious error for VAR to get involved in.

“How that can be decided in 17 seconds when there was a penalty incident down at Kilmarnock a few weeks ago that took eight minutes to have a look at. There is something rotten in the state of VAR just now and it's up to the SFA to sort that out."

SFA head of VAR called out

Conroy also called out the SFA head of VAR, Martin Atkinson, for failing to address the recent VAR controversies within Scottish football.

"Mr Atkinson is in charge of VAR at the SFA. We haven't heard hide nor hair from him," he said.

"It's becoming clear that everything involved in VAR is incompetent. If they are saying the evidence is inconclusive we need to get a new system in, or just forget it."

Asked whether a spot kick should have been awarded, Conroy added: “No. There was no offence. Did it touch the defender's hand? That's debatable.

“It's absolutely not clear, and that's being generous, that it hit the defender's hand, and when you watch the ball there is no deviation in its path whatsoever which would indicate there's been no contact.

“Let's suppose that it did hit his hand. Handball in itself is not an offence unless it's deliberate - if you put your hand up towards the ball or if you deliberately save it. Otherwise it has to be these stupid rules that IFAB have brought in about making yourself big or unnatural.

“Even if was to have hit his hand, it hit his hand right in front of his face. He wasn't making himself big, or unnatural. You've got to put your arms up to jump. There's nothing more unnatural as a defender than putting your arms behind your back. We all need our arms to jump.

“When they first started using these things they talked about the hands being outwith the silhouette of his body. None of that applied. If I was a Hearts supporter I would be furious.”

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