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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Rangers slam 'haste' over 'incorrect' penalty call vs Celtic after SFA talks

Rangers have met with the Scottish FA for talks over the non-penalty incident in Saturday's 2-1 loss to Celtic.

The club has confirmed that chiefs today met with SFA officials to discuss the incident where Alistair Johnston handled the ball inside Celtic's box during the first half of the game.

VAR reviewed the situation, but Willie Collum advised that on-field referee Nick Walsh waved play on - a decision which has now been concluded as incorrect, the Ibrox club states.

It was later suggested that there had been an offside against Abdallah Sima in the build-up to the handball by the Canadian international.

However, Rangers insist, having listened to the VAR audio, there was no mention of offside at the time of the handball call. 

The club has slammed the 'haste' in which the decision was made and has urged the SFA to release the audio to the wider public.

A Rangers spokesperson said: “Rangers FC today met with Scottish FA officials to discuss the VAR handball call and subsequent miscommunications from Saturday’s Old Firm match.

“From the meeting, there was an overriding consensus the VAR decision of no handball was incorrect.

“Having listened to the audio, there is no mention of a potential offside at the time of the handball decision. Rangers is also deeply concerned at the haste at which the erroneous no-handball call was made.

“Rangers has appealed to the Scottish FA to release the audio and explain this decision, and future contentious decisions involving all clubs, to the public, as would be common practice in England for such a decision.

“The club has made a number of specific requests that it hopes the Scottish FA will respond to in order to improve matters going forward.”

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