The free pass that Michael Nicholson handed the SFA over VAR

Yesterday’s refereeing performances at Ibrox hit new lows and confirmed the suspicions of many Celtic fans about the introduction of VAR.

While Michael Nicholson foolishly puts his trust in Crawford Allan the reality of VAR is that match officials are getting two opportunities to apply honest mistakes.

Nick Walsh and Steven McLean established the framework at Tynecastle in October. Hearts were awarded two penalties, which were probably given correctly while a far more blatant incident, Michael Smith handling a James Forrest pass, didn’t even merit a second look on the pitch-side monitor.

More than two months on no evidence has been produced to explain why a ‘goal’ by Liel Abada in that match was disallowed, apparently Hawkeye was used by McLean but the image is being kept secret.

The Forrest incident was brought up at the Celtic AGM on November 4, fatally Nicholson played the ‘teething troubles’ card which has been exploited by referees, on pitch and VAR, ever since.

Bizarre interpretations of the handball rule were used to award penalties against Alexandro Bemabei and Matt O’Riley. At this stage Ange Postecoglou opted out of commenting on VAR decisions other than the time taken to arrive at decisions.

In the unlikely event that Nicholson makes any complaint or enquiry to the SFA about a decision he’d be reminded of his AGM comment.

The Daily Express reported that Celtic CEO saying:

What we have as a club – and all clubs in Scotland have it – is an interest in having the best possible match officials and regulation of matches so we can focus on football. As we mentioned last year – and as Ian Bankier almost got into trouble with – we have for many years lobbied the SFA and the SPFL to make sure we got the best match officials possible.

The first step with that was pushing for VAR – which worked out well! The second stage was to raise our concerns about VAR with the SFA. In relation to the specific incident (at Hearts) we did ask questions about how the rules had been applied.

I think it is inevitable that with the early stages of VAR there are going to be some teething issues. But you can rest assured that we do continue to press that issue with the SFA and the SPFL. There is a working group that the SPFL have brought together of all the clubs.

It is quite a stretch to imagine anyone at the SFA worried about Bankier on the warpath. After being grilled about Bobby Madden’s regular appointments and the competence of Nick Walsh Bankier spluttered about deep concerns, regardless both referees continued to get frequent Celtic matches.

Despite being ‘rest assured’ that Celtic are pressing the issues with the SFA and SPFL a ‘goal’ from Jota was mysteriously disallowed at Motherwell a few days after the AGM. A long distance image was used to justify that decision followed by a bizarre SFA statement about a camera malfunction and the player being offside when the ball was received.

Two weeks ago against Livingston the match officials went to incredible lengths to disallow a ‘goal’ from Abada, rather than use the Hawkeye image referee Ewan Anderson consulted the pitch-side monitor before restarting with a free kick to Livingston.

Bearing in mind the events of 2012 and the appointment of a ‘new’ Celtic chairman, Nicholson will be very wary of upsetting anyone at the SFA with calls for accountability over VAR.

Despite being at the top of the SPFL Premiership Celtic have had five penalties awarded against them in the 10 matches since VAR was introduced on October 22. After yesterday’s events the team in second place have gone 20 SPFL matches without having a penalty awarded against them.

Yesterday’s decisions at Ibrox were entirely predictable, in certain circumstances the referee will award a penalty knowing that the VAR won’t decided that a clear and obvious error has occurred. In the same match he will wave play on knowing that the VAR won’t pull him up to review a penalty call.

In December 2018 Beaton turned in a similar type of performance when Celtic visited Ibrox.

It took five days of social media criticism for Peter Lawwell to issue a statement to take the heat off the Celtic hierarchy. The SFA smiled and laughed, no action was taken with Beaton back at the ground he likes best, first footing for 2023.

The SFA know that Nicholson wouldn’t dare demand transparency such as broadcasting the conversations between Collum and Beaton yesterday.

If the social media criticism continues there might be a Celtic statement later in the week. Some friendly reporters might be informed that the club is concerned and asking questions about VAR, another favoured deflection tactic while they sit back and do nothing. Nick Walsh will referee Saturday’s match against Kilmarnock.

With Nicholson carrying the same bite as his former boss Maxwell and Allan will treat any request or complaint with complete contempt knowing that the documentation from July 2012 is very securely stored.