Kenny Dalglish calls for rule change after Rangers incident at Ibrox
Sir Kenny Dalglish has called for a change to the handball rule after Antonio Colak was penalised in Rangers’ Scottish Cup win against Partick Thistle.
The Croatian gave away a spot kick in the first half against The Jags after the ball hit his hand from point-blank range, which saw a VAR review.
The former Liverpool legend has suggested it was “never” a penalty and has called for the authorities to review the handball rule as it is ruining the game.
“Partick Thistle got a penalty for handball against Antonio Colak. It was never a penalty. This handball rule really has to go. It’s ruining the game,” said Dalglish (Sunday Post, 19 February).
“Rangers were also awarded a spot-kick when Tillman was fouled. The offence was outside the box. Again, a poor decision by all. It is alarming the amount of calls our officials are getting wrong on a regular basis.
“But this is not exclusive to Scotland. The English Premier League had their own howlers last weekend. Poor decisions were made in the Arsenal v Brentford game and the clash between Crystal Palace and Brighton. Both were horrendous.”
Spot on
Dalglish is right here. At no point should the Scottish Championship side have been awarded a penalty. It’s getting to a point where players will be looking to intentionally direct the ball at players’ arms in the area to earn their team a penalty, which is not what should be encouraged.
Some common sense needs to prevail and it appears to be deserting a number of officials of late. The introduction of VAR has not helped the situation, with a number of smaller incidents being highlighted, when they perhaps shouldn’t be.
Luckily for the Light Blues, the decision didn’t impact their passage through to the quarter-final where they will play Raith Rovers in the last eight. The fixture against The Jags certainly had a number of talking points, with Malik Tillman’s controversial goal causing plenty of discussion amongst the media in recent days.
Michael Beale will be eager to move on from the incidents against Partick and focus on next weekend’s cup final against Celtic.
In other Rangers news, the Ibrox bank is set for a cash boost after a document emerged on Wednesday.