Former Scottish referee Bobby Madden has offered an insight into why Kemar Roofe's goal was ruled out by VAR during today's derby fixture against Celtic.
The Rangers striker thought he had opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark, but referee Don Robertson awarded a foul to Celtic for Cyriel Dessers’ challenge on defender Gustaf Lagerbielke in the build-up.
Gers manager Michael Beale believes the decision was wrong, but former SFA whistler Madden has offered an explanation to the decision.
With screenshots of the incident, the ex-ref wrote on Instagram: "The defender is in control. The defender's action is to play the ball with his left foot. This is the important part.
"The attacker has not played the ball at this point and puts his foot in between the defender and the ball.
"It's a foul anywhere on the pitch no matter what happens thereafter. Had the attacker played the ball before the contact, fine. But he was never in control or possession.
"Live, like most people watching, I would never think it was a foul. Naturally, you think 'he has pissed about and been caught on the ball'.
"But when you have VAR and all the angles you can't allow a goal when you have that evidence."
Beale said after the game: “The VAR decision I’m not sure about, I think Cyriel puts his foot down and the boy kicks him. I think he is a lucky boy.
“I am disappointed that goes against us. Having said that, there is a lot of football to be played afterwards.
“It’s a really poor goal, a goal that you cannot concede. It’s an isolated moment, we almost concede the goal ourselves.
“It’s a good finish from the lad but we shouldn’t concede a goal like that. In the second half we pushed, we chased the game, we had big moments to score.
“We could have created more but we certainly had big moments to score and we didn’t.
“It is a bitterly disappointing day, it’s not the result that anyone wanted. Obviously at this stage of the season it’s not where we want to be in terms of points difference either.”
