Credit: Imago

Daniel Lewis

Sat 16 May 2026 16:00, UK

Rangers concluded their Scottish Premiership campaign with a 5-2 win over Falkirk on Saturday lunchtime, with the game containing another contentious refereeing call.

The news agenda has been dominated by the fallout from Celtic’s late penalty in midweek, which ultimately paved the way for them to pip Hearts to the title on the final day.

And there was a similarly strange decision made on the face of it in Rangers’ entertaining win at Falkirk Stadium.

Youssef Chermiti was the hat-trick hero for the Gers, while Djeidi Gassama and Thelo Aasgaard, the latter from the penalty spot, also netted.

Keith Hackett has now exclusively shared his views with Ibrox News on the penalty decision given against Mohamed Diomande in Rangers’ final-day showdown.

Mohamed Diomande rightly penalised for handball

Rangers may have snapped their four-game losing run with the win over Falkirk, but it will not paper over the cracks of what has been a dire campaign for Danny Rohl‘s side.

Finishing third behind Celtic and Hearts is simply not good enough and questions need to be ask of numerous figures.

If fans are to take any positives, their side produced an impressive attacking display against Falkirk, albeit with zero pressure on them.

Falkirk were in the game until early in the second half, with Calvin Miller’s penalty in the 43rd minute pulling it back to 3-2 at the break.

The spot-kick was awarded by referee Duncan Nicolson for a hand-ball against Diomande. It was given after a lengthy VAR check.

While the decision seemed harsh on the face of it, with Diomande unable to do much at all to prevent the ball striking his arm, former FIFA referee Hackett praised Nicolson for pointing to the spot.

“Contact takes place with Diomande and the referee is correct in awarding the penalty kick,” Hackett said.

Thankfully for Rangers, that decision did not come back to haunt them. Indeed, the Gers were awarded a pen of their own later in the game that Aasgaard converted.

Refereeing shocker decides Scottish Premiership title outcome

Events at Falkirk Stadium were, of course, secondary on Saturday in terms of the wider Scottish Premiership picture.

Celtic took on Hearts in a title-deciding showdown, which the former won 3-1 to steal the title from their opponents.

Unsurprisingly, Celtic again had some favourable refereeing decisions on the final day. But nothing quite compares to the late spot-kick awarded in midweek.

The brutal reality is this season, as entertaining as it has been, will now be remembered by some refereeing howlers.

Celtic will not care, and now the onus is on Rangers to use this pain and anger in order to come back stronger in August.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.