Michael Stewart has weighed in on the Celtic vs Rangers Scottish League Cup final controversy that saw Vaclav Cerny denied a penalty during extra-time, saying he finds it "quite incredible" that VAR did not intervene.
The former player and current pundit discussed the hot topic that has since consumed Scottish football discourse in the aftermath of Celtic's trophy win alongside Darrell Currie, Alan Hutton and Peter Grant.
He said: "As soon as it happened, I'm thinking that's a penalty, or at least it's incredibly close. So the fact is that it's not like an incident that VAR could miss. The incident is there, it's there for all to see, a free kick's been given.
"So all VAR has to really check here is, is Cerny in the box at any point when Scales is pulling his shots? And the answer to that is yes, it's a penalty kick.
"This is a perfect example of how when VAR or referees or TV and pundits, anything like that, can frame a debate massively, and that really sort of drifted by without a great deal of scrutiny until afterwards and folk started talking about it then.
"But at the time, it's a no-brainer."
"It's a penalty kick!" 🗣️@darrellcurrietv, @mstewart_23, Alan Hutton and Peter Grant discuss Rangers' penalty claim in the #PremierSportsCup final 👀@McBookie pic.twitter.com/E4r5ooKPb4
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 18, 2024
Read more:
- 'Decisions will be wrong' - SFA make Rangers penalty admission
- Celtic vs Rangers VAR duo 'axed over penalty controversy'
The lack of VAR intervention has been discussed by pundits, players, former referees and many others in the last few days, with SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum expected to address the situation formally at some point later this week.
As shared by Premier Sports, Stewart added: "It's quite incredible that VAR missed that. It's unbelievable.
"[It's factual], this is a situation where the referee doesn't need to come over to look at a screen. VAR just needs to tell him, that's not a free kick, it's a penalty because Cerny's in the box.
"Obviously, the law being, you pull a jersey or the shorts, if it's outside the box and continues into the box, then it's a penalty kick. Simple as that."
