Rangers: Sky Sports look ‘ridiculous’ after what SFA sent them amid Ibrox controversy – Gary Keown
Gary Keown has suggested that Sky Sports have been left looking “ridiculous” after the SFA sent them a freezeframe of Abdallah Sima’s offside during the clash between Rangers and Celtic.
The second Old Firm derby of the Premiership season was shrouded in controversy after Philippe Clement’s side were denied a penalty for a clear handball by Alistair Johnston, with the SFA later claiming Sima had drifted offside in the build-up.
However, the freezeframe of this offside wasn’t given to Sky Sports to broadcast until the second half of the match, well after the incident occurred in the opening 45 minutes and Keown has suggested the incident has left the broadcaster with egg on their face.
Writing in the Scottish Daily Mail (7 January, page 110) he said: “The big issue was that freezeframe sent out by the SFA to Sky Sports during the second half of Abdallah Sima’s foot in an offside position before the handball. It is still a big issue.
“Whoever did that caused chaos and should be held to account. It took an inflammatory situation and shrouded it in confusion. It reinforced suspicions the SFA and their officials cannot operate VAR effectively.
“The release of that freezeframe muddied the waters. It felt like a deliberate diversion tactic to take the focus away from Walsh and Collum getting a huge decision spectacularly wrong. An attempt to create a narrative that ‘it didn’t matter anyway’. A case of somebody being too smart for their own good.
“What it really did was lead to a nation of viewers being misled and left in the dark. It led to Sky Sports looking ridiculous, talking about an offside somehow playing some kind of role in a penalty not being given when we had all watched the game restart with a goal-kick rather than an indirect free-kick.”
Looking ridiculous
It’s now been more than a week since this incident in the Old Firm clash and yet, supporters and pundits up and down Scotland and beyond are still discussing this issue which shows its ridiculousness.
It was clear for all the world to see that Rangers should have been awarded a penalty following the VAR review as there was no evidence of any offside shown and the ball had clearly struck Johnston’s hand in the penalty area.
What has followed since has been nothing short of an attempted cover-up by the SFA. Rangers are within their rights to be angry and Sky Sports should be feeling similarly aggrieved as they were made to look ridiculous.
Hopefully, some steps will be taken to ensure that the standard of officiating in Scottish football improves sooner rather than later. Mistakes happen, but the SFA cannot take these sorts of steps to attempt to cover their own backs.
In other Rangers news, Robbie McCrorie has been told to leave Ibrox this January by one of his relatives