Chris Sutton has raised a serious concern over the VAR footage shown to John Beaton in Sunday’s 3-3 draw between Celtic and Rangers.
Celtic were 2-0 up and looking good for their lead until Beaton awarded a penalty after a VAR review made him change his mind and overturn Fabio Silva’s yellow card for simulation to a spot kick for Philippe Clement’s team.
But it was the events leading up to the U-turn by Beaton that has Chris Sutton raising serious questions.
The former Celtic hero was unequivocal about what he thought about Silva’s antics at the penalty and even now, Sutton is still adamant that the penalty should never have been awarded.
Sutton slams ‘totally misleading’ VAR
And the reason why? Sutton isn’t happy with the footage that the VAR team showed Beaton as he feels it missed out on a key component that was crucial in the decision-making process.
Sutton said [Daily Record], “The clip shown by Sky is the clip the referee is being shown.
“And that is where I see a problem as well, as that clip didn’t include the ball being knocked away by Johnston’s outstretched boot first of all.
“It was totally misleading as it wasn’t the full incident.
“When you watch all of it, there is not a single angle that convinces me it was a penalty kick.”
Celtic raise questions over Ibrox VAR
As we all know by now, Celtic has raised questions with the SFA over the footage shown to Beaton by Alan Muir in the VAR room.
The club are unhappy that the match referee didn’t get to see the whole footage of the incident which would have shown Alistair Johnston making contact with the ball before Silva fell over his trailing leg.
It was a decision that changed the course of the match and VAR played a huge part in that. No one knows if John Beaton would have changed his mind if he had seen the whole chain of events or not. But he should have been given the opportunity to.
But the fact that he was only yards away, and the Ibrox crowd’s reaction to boot, and immediately brandished the yellow card means that Beaton was convinced Silva dived.
We will watch and wait to see how this develops because it will be interesting to see the SFA’s take on yet another controversial VAR decision that has cost Celtic in this title race.