Celtic SHOULD have had a penalty against Kilmarnock on the opening day of the season, the Scottish FA's head of refereeing Willie Collum has admitted.
The new SFA officiating chief has conceded that the VAR made an error during the 4-0 win for Brendan Rodgers' side in the opening weekend of the Scottish Premiership.
Kyogo's appeals for a penalty were waved away by on-field official Don Robertson, who didn't have a clear view of the incident where the Japanese striker collided with Killie goalkeeper Robby McCrorie.
The situation was checked by VAR at Clydesdale House, and they concluded that the ex-Rangers stopper made himself big and couldn't do much about the forward hitting off him, so no penalty was awarded.
However, in the new SFA YouTube show called The VAR Review, hosted by Gordon Duncan, Collum insists this was called wrong by the officials.
The show aired clips from the incident, with audio between the VAR and Robertson shared as part of the footage.
“We believe this was the wrong decision," Collum admitted. We have coached the referees and the VARs that a penalty kick should’ve been awarded here.
“It’s an unexpected free kick, the move by the way the ball is chipped over the wall. It catches the on-field referee by surprise. It’s then very difficult for the referee to find an angle round that wall to be able to get a proper view of the incident.
“The referee’s priority at that point is if a direct shot goes in, there’s a potential handball in the wall, so he’s positioned himself correctly for that.
“The Celtic player clearly gets ahead, wins the ball, touches the ball past the goalkeeper. We then think that the goalkeeper’s actions are reckless.
“So, for us, we think that this should’ve been a penalty kick.
“An on-field review should’ve been requested and the referee then asked to come to the monitor to make a judgement on this call.
“We want the referee’s to be dynamic, to be on their toes – they need to expect the unexpected in a scenario like that.
“For us, the goalkeeper causes this, it’s an infringement by him and he should’ve been punished.”
Read more:
The other decision relating to Celtic that came under the microscope was Kevin Clancy's view not to penalise Hibs for contact on James Forrest inside the box.
The experienced winger drove inside towards goal during a Premier Sports Cup tie last month. He hit the deck after going between two markers, but the referee pointed for a corner and was sure of his decision not to awarded a spot kick.
On this occasion, Collum insists his men got it correct.
He said: “For us, this is a correct decision on field – no penalty.
“The referee [Kevin Clancy] is very dynamic with his movement in and around the penalty area. We’re coaching our referees to be more dynamic, find the right angle – try to give themselves every opportunity to get the correct decision on field.
“The referee moves and quickly identifies that there’s not enough contact here for a penalty kick.
“It then goes to VAR and they need to check the incident. What’s really good for us is that VAR checks from three angles. One of those angles don’t tell them anything, so the VAR needs to move to change the angle, which is the one behind the goal.
“We can clearly see in the clip that there is some upper body contact, but we have been talking about a high threshold in Scotland for VAR intervention.
“So, for us, this doesn’t meet the standard or threshold we would expect for a penalty to be awarded.”
He added: “We need to be very careful that contact doesn’t always equate to being a foul. There can be normal footballing contact.
“Here, there’s definitely not enough for either the penalty to be awarded on-field, or for the VAR to become involved.”
