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BBC Sportscene pundit slams Willie Collum over Rangers incident v Kilmarnock
Neil McCann has slammed Willie Collum for his poor positioning ahead of Rangers’ penalty against Kilmarnock in their 3-1 win at Ibrox on Saturday.
In a race with Ryan Kent, Ryan Alebiosu was adjudged to have handled the ball but on-field referee Collum missed the incident initially and was told by VAR to use the pitch-side monitor to review it.
After seeing the ball clearly strike Alebiosu’s arm, Collum pointed to the spot and James Tavernier dispatched the penalty for his 13th goal of the season in all competitions.
McCann has praised the usage of VAR for that incident but believes that referee Collum should have been better placed on the field to see it at the first time of asking.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene on Saturday night (4 March, 13m15s), McCann said: “It certainly strikes the arm. When it comes across, there it is on the arm.
“Willie Collum’s position is poor in terms of he can’t give that decision, he can’t see it.
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“This is why VAR’s been brought in for that reason.
“And you can see from this angle here, it clearly hits the arm.
“Is it intentional? I’m not so sure but his arm’s high, Willie’s gone over and checked it and given the penalty.”
Give him a break
McCann’s been harsh here.
Collum’s positioning is normal, to be fair to him, and we can forgive referees for not seeing that handball because we didn’t see it at first either.
Antonio Colak was right by it and he saw it.
But Kent didn’t appeal so he cannot have noticed it either.
Not many inside Ibrox saw the ball hit Alebiosu’s arm but thank goodness for VAR because the correct decision was eventually made with officials coming together well.
Tavernier’s been a monster at penalty kicks again this season with the right-back lighting up the scoring charts at Ibrox.
We’ve got to keep on winning penalties though for him to keep this up and the reason we do get so many is that we have players who are fast, can break lines and trick defenders.
It’s not because of a conspiracy theory peddled by tin-foil-hat-wearing idiots in the East End.
When you spend as much time in the opposition box as Rangers do against dross defenders, you’re going to win a lot of fouls and VAR should hopefully help us win more.
In other Rangers news, a former FIFA official slammed a decision from Collum and then got Stephen Craigan’s name wrong.