Rangers v Celtic: Chris Sutton now accuses Graeme Souness of bias on ‘cheating’ Fabio Silva
Chris Sutton has hit back against accusations of Celtic bias in his Old Firm commentary by claiming Graeme Souness is equally blinkered in favour of Rangers.
The former Gers boss had suggested on talkSPORT (8 April) the ex-Hoops striker was trying to influence the VAR at Ibrox on Sunday by insisting Fabio Silva shouldn’t be awarded a penalty after John Beaton had booked him for a dive.
But the Sky Sports pundit told the Daily Record (8 April) that the officials rewarded the “embarrassing” Portuguese forward for “cheating” and insisted there is “no way” Souness would think it was a penalty if it wasn’t the Light Blues.
Sutton said: “I have a lot of respect for Graeme as a player, manager and pundit. But he is talking utter nonsense to suggest I was trying to somehow influence VAR.
“It would have been better if [VAR] Nick Walsh WAS watching Sky Sports – as the officials might have made the right call rather than rewarding cheating.
“I don’t know what he was watching when he called Beaton to the monitor, but it certainly wasn’t the TV coverage. Even in the unlikely event if they were, I’m not sure what kind of power Graeme thinks I wield. Does he think I’m God?! I don’t have that kind of sway unfortunately – give me another few months!
“In seriousness, it wasn’t a Celtic thing or a Rangers thing, I just called that incident as I saw it. If anything I suspect Graeme has the Rangers blinkers on as there is no way he’d think that was a penalty if any other team was involved.
“And having watched it over and over again, NOTHING has changed my mind about the incident. It is still not a penalty kick.”
Rangers penalty for Wolves loanee in Old Firm derby in dispute
John Beaton rewarding Rangers a penalty at Ibrox in the Old Firm derby against Celtic probably couldn’t fail to be seized upon as an issue, although it is essentially Silva’s fault for making it a controversy.
Sutton is right that the forward on loan from Wolves was quite embarrassing for most of the game up to that point, and had he not repeatedly been rolling around it is far less likely that the referee would have immediately shown him a yellow for a dive in the box having lost patience with the previous antics.
But the VAR review would have surely been more controversial if it hadn’t ended in that decision being overturned for a penalty.
Alistair Johnston did indeed get a touch on the ball as Silva took it past him, and Sutton’s additional complaint that the whole sequence wasn’t shown by the VAR replays is a valid point, but since the Canadian was falling away and going to be out of the picture as the Portuguese ran onto the loose ball it can’t be claimed that the defender won the challenge as only one player was going to then gain possession in a dangerous area.
There have been numerous claims that Silva was either already going down or initiated the contact as Johnston then kicked him across the knees with his trailing leg, when both are completely false.
He is leaning forward because of his momentum but doesn’t go down until after the contact, although admittedly again in a dramatic manner, and it was impossible to run round or over the leg at the height it was out.
Rangers also had a penalty given against them and a goal disallowed after VAR reviews but there haven’t been anywhere near the same complaints, while Beaton’s early refusal to show yellow for any Celtic infractions, including Cameron Carter-Vickers blatantly kicking the ball away worked in the visitors’ favour.
So while Sutton, Souness, and the vast majority of both sets of fans obviously are biased, fixating on the Silva penalty in a game that probably ended in the right result when both sides had periods of being good and poor is probably unnecessary, although Sutton has given the Gers credit where it was due elsewhere.
In other Rangers news, an Ibrox contract offer has gone down badly with a team sniffing about to take advantage of a possible exit.
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