Even some of the usual EBT recipients in the media expressed their bafflement at the decision by Referee David Munro to award a penalty against Matt O’Riley.
Euan Anderson, the chap in the VAR room, concurred with his colleague that the Celtic midfielder had handed the ball inside the box.
Matt O’Riley, like all outsiders, inadvertently carries out a common sense inventory of the culture he has entered.
After the match, he said:
“I don’t really know what I could have done. My hands were by my side.
“I don’t know if the ball hit my arm first or my hip and then my arm, but I don’t know where else I can put my arm.
“We have had some strange decisions go against us recently, to say the least, but they still can’t stop us.”
In the immediate post-match, Ange said something intriguing.
“Best left to the people in charge”.
What do you make of that, dear reader?
Is the straight-talking Australian with the immigrant backstory handing the responsibility over to the Incognito CEO to finally finally do something about the chaps at Hampden?
In the absence of a definitive VAR image on the Jota goal against Motherwell, the doubt persists that this is a Dougie Dougie moment for the digital age.
That is the sort of thing that would have the Bunnet going to law.
For generations, the men in the Parkhead boardroom usually had a back-of-the-bus attitude to “strange decisions”.
Of course, Fergus McCann was a cultural outsider.
The Bunnet, a naturalised litigious North American businessman, went after Farry over the Cadete registration because the SFA chap was hurting Celtic commercially.
Now, dear reader, consider this:
What are the chances that the ONE TIME that Celtic got lawyered up at the SFA, they struck gold and that there was nothing else to find at Hampden?
Many in the Stenography Corps continually sneer at the widely held belief among Celtic supporters that some in officialdom have an issue with the ethnicity of the Parkhead club.
Indeed, like liquidation denial, it is a requirement of their occupational status.
Now, VAR has created TWO opportunities for Honest Mistakes.
Consequently, that venally collusive narrative from the Fitba Fourth Estate is becoming increasingly threadbare.
However, perhaps there is a solution.
I understand that the VAR function can be operated remotely many miles from the stadium.
Well, that means that it doesn’t need to be in Scotland.
They could get real experienced professionals in charge who, let’s just say, would undoubtedly be free of any cultural hostility towards a club that was formed by Irish immigrants.
That would remove the doubt for sure.
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Celtic should be demanding to see the footage the camera was actually focused on at the time
The good thing about VAR is that it makes bad decisions so obvious. There is no excuse for missing a two footed tackle (for example) now and few people on earth could explain how the handball against Hearts wasn’t given.
All Celtic can do for now is to collect the evidence.
The last time Celtic sent collected evidence to the football authorities the refs went on strike!
Apparently, we were questioning their integrity.
How many times week in week out when an incident occurs does the ref turn to the linesman for guidance whilst the linesman waits on the ref to make the decision for him before the touch line official hoists his flag in the same direction as the ref is pointing.
It happens time after time.
It’s a brilliant idea, but it will NEVER happen. It would mean the SFA admitting there’s a problem. It would mean that their favoured team would no longer be guaranteed a disproportionate number of penalties, and generally dodgy decisions. Their favoured team would be the ONLY side to lose out under such a proposal. So, as I said, it will NEVER happen.
I thought this myself so I completely agree with you
Why would you NOT want to remove the doubt ?
Just had a look at the penalties conceded and received so far in the SPFL.’
AmazinglyCeltic share bottom place with one penalty awarded to date, rather surprising considering how much time we spend in the opposition penalty area!
On the other hand we have had 4 penalties awarded against us in the season to date, a couple of which come into the highly dubious category.
Take a peek at the penalties awarded against each SPFL team. Somehow or another there is only one of the 12 teams who have no penalties awarded against them, guess who, whilst Celtic have had 4 given against them.
Despite both of these statistics Celtic are 9 points clear, 10 effectively taking in goal difference.
Stats don’t lie, there is something not quite right going on.
TWO opportunities for honest mistakes? By my count in the last 4 it has been – 4 penalties given against us. At least 2 not given for us. 2 reckless red card challenges waved off & not 2 mention the players falling down at our feet without being touched & getting a free kicks.
I believe English fitba has VAR.
Scottish fitba on the the other hand looks more like DER.
What happens though, if the same honest mistakes are made by Italian, Spanish or English referees!
then it will be an honest mistake not blue tinted
We have the worst officials in Europe…fact. Not one of them on duty in the upcoming World Cup.
Which is in a way a shame as the rest of the world could see at first hand how bad Scottish officials are.
VAR was always going to work this way in Scotland .
It should be an independent body who look at VAR decisions
Not officials who have allegiances to a certain football club .
How many penalties have been given by those officials when a certain team is struggling in a game .and need an honest mistake or two
To be clear…We have now “suffered ” at the hands of VAR… far too often.
It’s not just for and against penalties…it’s also dubious off-side decisions and potential red card offences as well.
I’ll be honest and say that I thought VAR would “level the playing field ” and reduce the cheating.
Boy…did I get that wrong.
It is perfectly obvious to me, that we have been cheated on various occasions since its introduction…and that needs to be addressed full on, in an Official capacity…. NOW !!
The problem is….to make sure that happens, we need to rely on the Board to pursue this to a satisfactory conclusion.
Ach well…it was a good thought while it lasted.
Terencenova, I could have written your post myself!
I have had to eat humble pie with my friends and family after spouting the nonsense that they couldn’t cheat us over matters of fact.
How wrong could I have been?
The introduction of VAR means there is no hiding place. The dubious decisions are clear. What would be effective would be UEFA/FIFA taking control and setting a VAR centre in a low cost country. They simply educate VAR operators on the rules of the games and they implement. Hardly rocket science and cheaper than what we have today and no favouritism. Simple
I’ve thought, all along, that VAR should be monitored by the guys at Stockley Park. Surely, it would be cheaper in the long run, to subcontract this to them? Furthermore, what happened to “the referee’s decision is final”? Imagine the carnage if an Airbus A-380, which is a “fly by wire” airliner was wrongly diagnosed by all of the on-board computers as having an engine fault, resulting in automatic shutdown, and the pilot decided to do nothing because the computers “know what they’re doing”? The ref must be allowed to override the VAR in certain circumstances.
Perhaps there are some fine folks in Dublin that could be making the VAR calls
Good idea but not a chance our board will do anything, they don’t want Celtic to pull away from the Govananters
Whilst we are on top / winning – it may be worth CFC PLC Board putting SFA / VAR in spotlight and ask them to review the first four batches of our games and provide clarity
It was good we done something after Motherwell game, but do it for all 4
Sends the message that we are watching
After all we are speaking about fine margins to achieve league titles and CL qualification
To Phil’s point get a lawyer to run this until exhausted / satisfied
Great suggestions to use VAR officials from another country. Unless or until that happens or even if that happens the club and its supporters should be calling for ALL officials to be mic’ed up so that EVERY word they utter during VAR games is retrievable. “it’s not clear and obvious , we’ve been talking about it too long” [VAR man smiles] and “oh, goalkeeper…” [same VAR man sniffs and looks glum and writes a detail in his notebook”] in Celtic Hearts game were snippets we got to see on VAR week 1 and were very very telling. Make it like the Rugby where we can hear what they are saying.
Totally agree Phil, been saying it for a long time now, independent VAR official working behind a screen from another country,…..now why would someone object to that?….something to hide maybe?,…or maybe to ensure jobs for the boys in the ludge?….more likely the latter….onward and upward celtic,big Jock would be so proud of Ange, he is a true proffesional,in every way.