Hawkeye again goes AWOL in latest Celtic VAR storm
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Livingston - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - December 21, 2022 Referee Euan Anderson disallows Celtic's third goal scored by Liel Abada after a VAR review REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
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’.
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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.