In their seventh SPFL match played under VAR Celtic fans were once again left baffled as a goal was disallowed in strange circumstances.
In the 72nd minute Liel Abada raced onto a bouncing ball to drill a low shot past the Livingston keeper into the net for what looked like Celtic’s third goal.
The standard check took longer than expected, it dragged on, the stadium scoreboard indicated a possible offside during which time the VAR should be provided with a Hawkeye image to decide whether the goal stood or not.
Steven Kirkland was on VAR duty but reluctant to give a decision, after a three minute delay referee Euan Anderson was called over to look at the pitchside monitor.
All of the VAR publicity has explained that offside is clear cut, Hawkeye puts the jigsaw together but once again it was found wanting. No Hawkeye image was provided on Celtic TV to justify the decision to disallow the ‘goal’.
Should Celtic push SFA for transparency by publishing VAR reports?
Yes, VAR without explanations is pointless
No, let the teething troubles settle down
At Motherwell at the start of November a ‘goal’ by Jota was disallowed in similar circumstances. On that occasion a long range image was produced to justify the decision, two days later the SFA came up with a statement that mentioned how Jota had been offside when the ball was played.
Seven minutes of stoppage time were played, Celtic hung on for their 2-1 victory with no sign of the Hawkeye image to explain why the ‘goal’ from Abada was disallowed.
At the final whistle Fourth Official Matthew MacDermid was seen speaking to Abada but as usual the paying customer was left in the dark.
I think VAR stands for “video advantage rangers”.
‘I prefer ‘Video Assistance Ranjurs’
Not even hiding it anymore. So blatant.
It’s not even incompetency or just bias. It’s corruption.
Even if The Celtic Hierarchy are reluctant to criticise openly,
as a PLC, their duty to the shareholders, forget the customers
they’ll be back at the weekend, their duty is to defend the Club against
deliberate, corrupt acts that may have a negative effect on the future profitability of the Club.
If the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association continue with its vendetta against the Club ultimately we are going to see
point’s being dropped and ‘the other team’ gaining advantage every week which could see
the League Title going their way with the prize of automatic entry to the UEFA Group Stages and the Money Pot.
55Years I’ve watched the Whartons through to Beaton & his cohorts cheat us on the park and it being covered up by the SFA.
But the sheer arrogance displayed by the refereeing community, as if inviting us to question either their competence, integrity or honesty
when their actions or inactions are being beamed into millions of homes in the Country. This is compounded when Scotland’s Media, print and Broadcasting, refuse to highlight this malfeasance and turn a blind eye to the antics of their favoured Club.
The ‘best wee bigoted Country in the Wurld’.
Yesterday evening and Tuesday evening vindicate my decision to stop paying my good honest cash to watch Celtic being cheated live… I still spend plenty on merchandise from the club but if this continues without a word from the manager or especially the yellow, spineless and cowardly board then it’ll be their loss and a few extra days in Celtic pubs with the merchandise cash…
Jeez how much more do we need to take – I realise that Celtic can’t say anything about the open cheating at Pittodrie that keeps the gap at nine points and not the twelve it should be but surely surely last night was the night or today as it’s coming down the pipe that it’s gonna cost Celtic and cost Celtic very soon, probably at Easter Road and definitely at The bastion of hate and bigotry of ibrokes, Liebrox on 2nd January 2023 !
I was watching without sound as I was in a zoom meeting. To me it was clear that what had to be determined was not whether Abada was offside as he clearly was. The referee had to consider whether the attempt at an interception could be interpreted as deliberately playing the ball in such a manner as to constitute playing him on. I agree it’s not really satisfactory as it leads to inconsistency. It was not an objective call needing a Hawkeye screening. That would have been even more confusing.
Why can’t they put it up on the big screen so everyone can see