Conflicted Collum puts penalty row ref in charge of Celtic v Dundee United

On Friday night Willie Collum explained why Steven McLean ignored the Laws of the Game to deny Celtic a penalty at Motherwell.

Leading 1-0 at Fir Park on October 11 Callum McGregor’s shot towards goal was deflected round the post by the arm of Lukas Fadinger.

McLean saw the contact, awarded a corner while his mate Don Robertson performed a brief VAR check for a penalty.

Play continued with a corner to Celtic. Later in the match Ben Nygren scored Celtic’s second goal.

Tomorrow against Dundee United McLean will again referee Celtic. Just 17 days on from wrongly denying them a penalty.

No referee should be in charge of the same team within three weeks. Only Collum can explain why he chose McLean for Wednesday’s match. He knew the day after the Motherwell match that one of his leading referees had refused to award Celtic a penalty.

At Fir Park McLean was refereeing back to back Motherwell matches.

CARRY ON COLLUM

Back in August McLean refereed Celtic’s League Cup win away to Dundee United.

So far this season 13 referees have taken charge of Premiership matches. No one should be refereeing back to back matches involving the same clubs.

Tomorrow’s match will be Celtic’s 13th domestic game of the season. Again there is no justification for the same referee three times. Again only Collum can explain why.

Speaking to the VAR Review (the Willie Show) on Friday Collum explained:

Again, I’ve got great sympathy for the Motherwell player because I think he is trying to avoid the contact.

As the shot comes in, he’s turning his body away, he’s bringing his leg up to block the ball.

There’s definitely discussion between the referee and the VAR about the arm tucked in. I think the elbow’s tucked in, but the Motherwell player takes a real risk by his arm out from the body here.

And in our opinion, after reviewing this incident, our coaching going forward is that this should be a penalty kick, should be awarded in this incident.

There is no ‘going forward’ involved. Before during and after the match at Motherwell the Laws  of the Game award Celtic a penalty.

McLean is clearly a favourite of Collum. There is no justification for standing by the Glasgow based referee, especially in matches against Celtic.

McLean has previous for not awarding Celtic penalties. Stretching back to the Josh Meekings handball in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle.