Frank McAvennie believes that VAR has turned Scottish football into a laughing stock.
More than four years after the technology was first used in the EPL the Scottish game finally caught up with an unusual mid-season introduction.
After a quiet debut at the Hibs v St Johnstone match on Friday night it all kicked off on Saturday with Sky Sports covering Celtic’s clash with Hearts.
Two marginal decisions went against Celtic in the first 43 minutes but it was an incident on the stroke of half-time that dominated the aftermath of the game on social media.
Should Celtic ask for publication of VAR conversations between McLean and Walsh?
Yes, it will help fans understand decision making
Teething troubles, we have to trust SFA officials
Clips of Michael Smith raising his left arm to block a cross from James Forrest went viral but despite a clear view Nick Walsh refused to point to the penalty spot. Incredibly VAR Steven McLean agreed with that decision, declining the option of requesting Walsh takes another look on the pitch-side monitor.
Reacting to that incident and a 16 match run without a penalty in the SPFL, McAvennie told Football Insider.
It has happened for years. When I played, the gaffer used to say we will get nothing off the referee. It is going way back. There is no way it is a coincidence.
It does not matter that VAR is in. Against Hearts he [Smith] stopped the ball with his hand and we got nothing, and that is with VAR. It is just not right.
I get how the referees can miss things but not the people watching it. The whole world saw it was a penalty. It is just a laughing stock.
I just find it strange that we have not had any, especially with the amount of attacking play that they have got. There would be one or two
Willie Collum will referee Sunday’s match away to Livingston with Alan Muir as VAR.
For once he’s 100% correct, doesn’t matter how many times we complain,they now have perfect excuse var checked and go DOB referees a way out as Jock Stein said we will score more goals than they can disallow
Nothing new Frank it is a fact of Celtic’s life. GIVE CELTIC NOTHING.
even after all the years of great acclaim throughout the world that Celtic have brought to Scotland. The club are seen as the enemy within the Scottish hierarchy.
Asking for full VAR discussions between officials and the referee is a great idea ! The problem being in between time of askance and delivery , who the hell knows if anything gets ‘doctored,’ or not .All digital data can be altered quite easily to suit one lots agenda ! Asking for a copy straight after the match from Celtic would leave less time for an ‘edit.’ This is not paranoia,but reality .
What I would like, and I think most people would agree, is that the referee’s chat with the VAR should be available to the viewers/fans in real time as it happens.
On refection, as someone who believed that a referee always had the ‘get out of jail card’ excuse that he didn’t see it but that the VAR could not possibly use that excuse, I thought that we would thus eliminate most of those ‘honest mistakes’, even in Scotland.
Maybe what last week at Tynecastle shows is that they do indeed have the gall to stitch us up and then laugh at us whingeing afterwards.
Big John expressed it so well on air when he said that Celtic not only beat Hearts but VAR as well; something that no other pundit (even a Celtic one) has done, probably because they feared for their job. Will big John suffer that loss or will he be kept on just for the element of controversy?
And it is because of our religion. They’re Protestans and they hate Catholicism. But it is a perverted derivative of Protestantism, if there is such a thing! It is a heresy. It has nothing to do with religion. Religion is used as a scapegoat to hide their true intentions. They hate the teachings of Catholicism. They want to live the life they want to live and be free from moral constraints!
Ask the bookies. They know.
Compare the odds every week on sevco getting a penalty or someone getting ordered off against them, with the odds on Celtic getting the same.
Are the bookies paranoid?
I don’t think so.
celtic should be asking questions rearding var on saturday to the sfa. regarding the bent refs this farce has been going on for many decades regarding our club and few others when they play the bigots. dont expect it to change anytime soon even with the sfa 2nd rate var system.
VAR Scotland: A second chance to cheat. The technology has to be operated scientifically by an independent assessor.