Keith Jackson reacts to Rangers v Celtic controversy – ‘rotten luck’
Keith Jackson believes the fact there was VAR controversy in Rangers’ Scottish League Cup final against Celtic was “rotten luck”.
The Daily Record journalist thinks VAR has been showing improvements in general in Scottish football and rued that such a high-profile error was made in Sunday’s showpiece at Hampden Park (15 December).
During the moment in question, Vaclav Cerny was pulled down on the edge of the area but the infringement carried on inside of the penalty box.
At the time, the scores were tied at 3-3 but the Gers should have had the opportunity to hit the front from 12 yards.
Instead, the game went to penalties and Rangers ended up getting defeated by their arch-rivals 5-4 and there has been plenty of fallout to the contentious incident.
Speaking on the Daily Record’s Hotline Live (18 December), Daily Record journalists Jackson and Scott Burns shared their thoughts on the controversial moment.
“The other thing you’ve got to remember is the clubs have paid to bring in VAR, they’re funding it,” Burns said.
“They should be getting the best service possible so if that’s the case then what’s the point of the clubs paying for VAR if they’re not going to get the right outcome.
“A lot of clubs will think it’s money down the drain, the offsides and things might be right but when it comes to big ones like Sunday [Rangers versus Celtic], with the penalty decisions where it actually impacts whether you win a trophy or not it’s [not good].”
Jackson couldn’t believe that such a high-profile incident occurred at such an inopportune time replied: “Is it just rotten luck that even though things across the board have been a great deal better, when was the one time that the whole thing was going to collapse on itself, it had to be in a cup final between Rangers and Celtic when it’s 3-3.”
Rangers could have been Scottish League Cup winners if they were awarded the penalty
While nothing can be done about it now, it feels like Philippe Clement’s men were rather hard done by after leaving Hampden Park without a trophy to add to their cabinet.
Throughout the entirety of the clash, it was very end-to-end and, to be quite frank, there were times when it felt like Rangers had got the trophy in the bag.
Alas, that evidently wasn’t meant to be as Celtic added their 119th trophy to their honours list [Scottish Sun Sport, 15 December] and Clement’s men left empty-handed.
The scrutiny that has been hanging over the head of the Belgian this season has been well deserved but when the performances of the Ibrox outfit over the last month or so are taken into account, it genuinely does feel like things are finally starting to piece together.
While the loss against Celtic in the cup final on Sunday will no doubt remain sore for a while, it feels like the Gers could use this defeat to come back stronger and perhaps gain vengeance over the Bhoys, starting when the sides next meet early in the new year.
In other Rangers news, a Philippe Clement sack verdict has emerged amid an “unsurvivable” admission.
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