When Daizen Maeda met Calum Osmond’s low cross on 86 minutes (yes, 86!), the Japanese phenomenon scored the title-winning goal.
Paradise erupted in unbridled joy.
Then the flag went up.
It was offside.
The crowd slumped in silence.
I felt the deflation in Donegal.
It was close, but the goal was offside.
Fair enough.
Except that it wasn’t.
Moreover, without VAR, it would not have stood.
SKY ref Dermot Gallagher called it spot on.
Osmond was onside when he pulled the ball back for Celtic’s beloved Samurai.
For the avoidance of doubt, in the absence of that technological cooperation, Sevco’s low-calorie cousins leave Parkhead with the SPFL trophy.
In the aftermath of the game, some lamented that VAR was “killing football”.
Actually, it isn’t.
As Alan Morrison of the Huddle Breakdown famously observed recently on ACSOM when commenting on match officials, he stated that no one wanted to be on “Willie Vision”.
Insert your own jokes here…
Willie Colum’s culture of transparency means that match decisions are analysed and HEARD after the fact.
Over a period of time, that will have an impact.
This is a long way from the days of Crawford Allan and, whisper it, Hugh Dallas.
Pitch invasions are wrong, and they shouldn’t happen.
Apparently, they’re not currently illegal in Scotland.
However, the selective outrage from the usual suspects on Planet Fitba is easy to see through.
This, from The Man Who Imagines Billionaires, is typical.
Celtic are champions because VAR correctly judged that the decisive goal was onside.
That’s why the technology should remain.
The playing field on Planet Fitba should be level and not on the level.
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OOOO AH UP THE VAR!
Spot on.
The VAR system we have is cheap and needs to be the same or as close to the Tourist League system as possible.
The VAR officials are an obvious problem due to their bias but I’m screaming into the void here when I say that due to today’s technology and connectivity the VAR team doesn’t have to be Scottish based and in truth we could have them on the fekin moon making decisions.
It would interesting if Alan Morrison could carry out analysis on which teams have had decisions overturned by VAR and the possible points accrued/denied.
I can think of the penalty at Ibrox, that wasn’t seen by the officials, that was awarded and gave Celtic a draw and took two points off The Rangers. Easter Road goal given offside incorrectly and overturned. Same match a yellow card overturned for a red card.
Fir Park penalty turning one point into three.
Sunday’s match with a terrible offside flag overturned turning one point into three and deny Hearts a point.
Three of those matches, every decision went against Celtic and were overturned by VAR.
Those three matches left us with nine points as opposed to three points if there had been no VAR.
Funny old game.
I love how this is all an embarrassment to Scottish football, but changing the rules so ‘The Rangers’ could rejoin the league and then changing the rules again to make sure no other team could do this wasn’t.