Keith Jackson reacts to Rangers and Celtic drama after VAR incidents
Keith Jackson has reacted to the VAR drama in both Rangers and Celtic’s Sunday (12 November) matches, suggesting the decisions “defied belief.”
The Light Blues ran out 2-0 winners over Livingston on Sunday, while Celtic breezed past Aberdeen with a 6-0 win at Celtic Park, but both matches were marred by VAR controversy with questionable decisions dominating the discussion.
Rangers were fortunate to win a first-half penalty when Ross McCausland went down under limited contact but then saw the 20-year-old’s first Gers goal wrongly ruled out for a foul in the build-up, in one of many decisions that left Jackson frustrated.
Writing in the print edition of the Daily Record (13 November, page 38) he said: “Ross McCausland got hit by both ends of the VAR strict yesterday and neither call was correct.
“But the decision not to red card Aberdeen’s Slobodan Rubezic for wiping out Kyogo was on the defied belief.”
Needs fixing
As is the case in leagues across the world, the Scottish Premiership currently has a VAR problem that needs fixing sooner rather than later as games week in and week out in Scotland are continuously becoming dominated by the official’s decisions.
Rangers shouldn’t have ever been awarded a penalty when McCausland went down early in the first half, if there was any contact it was minimal. Ultimately it didn’t matter as James Tavernier slammed his penalty well wide of the post, but that doesn’t excuse the VAR and referee’s decision.
Having watched McCausland’s strike late in the first half repeatedly, it still remains unclear why the 20-year-old’s goal was ruled out, with very little contact being made by Abdallah Sima in the penalty area during the build-up to chalk off his strike.
It can be argued that the decisions ultimately evened themselves out at the Tony Macaroni Arean on Sunday, but the whole point of introducing VAR into the Premiership was in an attempt to ensure that the referees were able to reach the correct decisions more often than not.
Across the two Old Firm matches this weekend, the officials got plenty more decisions wrong than they did right, even with the help of VAR in both matches. Either the officials aren’t good enough, or they need some more help.
In other Rangers news, Kenny Miller was stunned by Ross McCausland’s “incredible” performance against Livingston