IT took 22 minutes into Celtic’s first domestic game under VAR for the technology to be rendered utterly useless.
To be fair, it’s not the technology but the people in charge of it that are the real issue.
Celtic were 1-0 up against Hearts at Tynecastle when they swung a ball into the box, Anthony Ralston’s head met the corner and put it into the back of the net. Nick Walsh whistled quickly for a foul on a Hearts player and the goal didn’t stand. Enter VAR! It took Stevie McLean 90 seconds to come to the conclusion it wasn’t a goal. However, as we look at the footage, it very much looks like there was no infringement and the goal should have stood.
VAR was never going to be a silver bullet and it’s taken just 22 minutes to show the flaws.
Chris Sutton agrees.
It beggars belief they took so much time to come to the wrong conclusion. When were told VAR was coming in, we cited the people officiating Scottish football need to be brought up to a much better standard first. They haven’t improved and we’ll continue to see decisions like this.
A new word for the OE Dictionary…’SVARCE’ explanation – it’s a FARCE! The
technology may be good but with Scottish referees in control of it, the same old bias takes over.