Rangers v Celtic could be replayed after bombshell Willie Collum admission
Rangers have fair grounds to ask for the Scottish League Cup final clash with Celtic to be replayed after Willie Collum’s bombshell admission.
Scottish FA head of refereeing Collum accepted on Thursday (19 December) that Rangers should have been awarded a penalty in last weekend’s defeat at Hampden Park.
The incident, in which Vaclav Cerny had his shirt pulled as he entered the Celtic box, went unpunished and was rightly slammed as “inexplicable”.
Speaking on the SFA’s VAR Review Show [19 December], Collum said: “The holding [of Cerny’s shirt] begins outside the penalty area and then it continues on the line and arguably beyond the line and fully into the penalty area.
“Regardless, the fact it’s on the line this should be considered as a penalty kick. The referee has awarded a free-kick on the field because he sees the pulling.
“He’s correctly judged the incident in terms of the foul play but then the VAR team need to go into a check, they need to decide whether the incident is inside or outside and ultimately they failed to come to the correct conclusion which is this should have been a factual overturn, no need for the referee to go to the monitor. A factual overturn for a penalty kick to be awarded.”
Rangers have grounds to appeal to SFA over Celtic replay
A high-profile case earlier this year saw Genk successfully appeal for a replay after their 2-1 defeat to Anderlecht in the Belgian Pro League.
Genk pointed out that an error made by VAR cost them on 22 December as one of their goals was wrongly ruled out by the letter of the law.
They used Law 14.3 of the IFAB rules in that particular case. While the incident in question was different – it regarded player encroachment in the box – it shows there is indeed grounds for requesting a replay.
It is also worth pointing out that this was ‘only’ a league game, as opposed to a cup final at the national stadium between the two fiercest rivals in world football.
This will no doubt attract some ridicule, with many just telling Gers fans to get over it, but the bottom line is that the officials have accepted a mistake was made.
The mistake denied the Bears a penalty that may well have changed the way the match eventually panned out, with Celtic – ironically – prevailing on penalties.
If nothing else, the Gers board should at the very least read over the IFAB rulebook and reach out to the SFA. They have nothing to lose.
In other Rangers news, the club have set their sights on an African forward who is tearing things up.
For more Rangers news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.