Celtic turn to their media partners at the Daily Record over VAR controversy

Celtic have been working with their media partners at the Daily Record over the controversial decision to disallow a ‘goal’ from Kelechi Iheanacho.

Early in the second half of the match against Braga it looked like the former Leicester striker had equalised when he raced through on goal to shoot low past goalkeeper Lukis Hornicek.

The referee saw nothing wrong with the ‘goal’ but the routine VAR check seemed to drag on, television viewers watched replays of the ball flying up, past Iheanacho’s arm then knocked forward by his forehead to present him with his chance at goal.

After a two minute pause play restarted with a free-kick to Braga with Celtic still trailing 1-0.

Behind a Substack paywall Scotland’s Coefficient claimed that the ‘goal’ had been disallowed by the linesman with the VAR check carried out to see if a clear and obvious error had been made which would allow the goal to stand.

Since the incident occurred just outside the penalty box on the South Stand side of the pitch it seems incredible that the linesman much further from the incident would pick up on a handball missed by the referee.

That notion was being pushed online last night with Michael Gannon of the Daily Record opening his report with:

Furious Celtic will be contacting UEFA to demand an explanation for the goal that never was in their chastening defeat to Braga.

Kelechi Iheanacho thought he had the Premiership champions level in the second half, however, it was ruled out after German whistler Tobias Stieler was backed up by the VAR team over the handball offense which left onlookers baffled – with TNT revealing a VAR audio leak stated “officials are saying there is a clear brush of the left arm somewhere in the footage”.

That was followed by the tell tale line of:

Now Record Sport understands club officials will seek answers after it emerged Celtic were doomed as match officials were looking to find a way to overturn the on-field decision, rather than to prove a handball took place.

‘Furious Celtic’ occasionally contact the SFA for clarity or an explanation by Scottish officials in a bid to pretend that they are challenging the authorities.

This never happens straight after a match but only once social media criticism reaches a certain level.

After a reminder of the events of 2012 the controversy will be conveniently dropped by the club..

Last night was a perfect opportunity for the club to gain support and sympathy among fans by putting out a statement on their own channels explaining what had happened and what they intended to do. Nothing will impact on the result.

Instead the in-house Communications Team of Iain Jamieson and Sharon Lyons turned to their favoured means of dropping a text message to one of their preferred group of reporters

At the start of September The Sun were briefed about Brendan Rodgers by a source close to senior figures at the club with the Record expecting to get the next briefing.

As ever Michael Nicholson is silent on the matter, last night the Celtic CEO was looking pale and drawn during the match, possibly displaying some nerves ahead of Monday’s meeting with the Fans Collective in which he will be called to account for the first time in four years in the job.

NOTE: Print circulation of the Daily Record dropped below 40,000 during August, the print edition still funds their online offering.

CLICK HERE for Chris McKay laughing through Celtic’s defeat to Braga.