Kyogo Furuhashi has found himself at the centre of debate following what has turned into a controversial collision with Aberdeen goalkeeper Ross Doohan during Celtic’s 1-0 victory at Pittodrie.
Former Premiership referee Bobby Madden described the incident as “reckless” and suggested the Japanese striker should have received a yellow card for his actions.
The moment happened in the first few minutes of the match when Kyogo chased down a through ball, only to collide with Doohan, who had just secured possession. The striker’s knee inadvertently struck the keeper in the face, leaving Doohan requiring medical attention.
Referee Don Robertson awarded a free kick to Aberdeen but chose not to caution Kyogo. The Celtic forward immediately checked on Doohan, who was able to continue after treatment.
Former referee Bobby Madden reignited the debate on Instagram, sharing a clip of the challenge on Instagram and offering his perspective:
“Yellow for me. Reckless and shows a disregard for the opponent. Keeper has possession, and I believe there is an opportunity to avoid contact.”
Madden stopped short of agreeing with calls for a red card but maintained that Kyogo’s actions met the criteria for a booking.
Madden added fuel to the controversy by conducting a fan poll asking whether Kyogo’s challenge warranted no card, a yellow, or a red. The responses appeared to align closely with club loyalties:
Celtic fans overwhelmingly favoured no card, while Aberdeen and Rangers supporters leaned towards a red card.
I doubt no poll conducted about HarDon Robertson’s unique refereeing style aka letting teams leave the boot in against Celtic at every opportunity, and ensuring a Celtic player is first in the book regardless of how many fouls the opposition commit?
I have always felt Bobby Madden was a fair and neutral referee in his time as a ref in the SPL.
But as a “pundit” afterwards, his close affiliations with the old extinct club clearly has ties to the new club.
His claim here is totally absurd! Let’s not be mincing words here! The most corrupt, anti-Celtic referee since Hugh Dallas days, his SON, ANDREW DALLAS, was on VAR yesterday! Don’t you think he looked at this and tried extremely hard to find incriminating evidence to have Don Robertson issue a straight red card for this? This was nothing more than a 100% innocent collision between two players going for the same loose ball. A ball which, contrary to Madden’s claim, was NOT in the goalie’s hands yet.
So innocent was the challenge, the when he got back on his feet, even Doohan went to Kyogo to shake his hand, acknowledging that HE KNEW it was a fair challenge.
So once again, the bias and bigotry club are shown up.
Well said Joe.
That’s exactly how it was.
I actually thought it might be a penalty for Celtic when Kyogo went down .. to suggest that Kyogo deserved a red card for a perfectly fair tackle on the goalkeeper is preposterous..🙄