VAR has been the bane of every Celtic fan’s life since its inception almost two years ago.
Brought in to help eradicate what the media once labelled ‘honest mistakes’, the new refereeing technology has, in my opinion, caused more controversy than it has solved.
If it’s not ambiguity over the offside rule, it’s the inconsistent interpretation of dangerous play which results in red cards to players.
Celtic has been a victim of both of these instances but none more so than the VAR ruling that Michael Stewart has told the new SFA Head of Referees, Willie Collum, to make his ‘sole focus’ in the early days of his new role at the national association.
Willie Collum told to ‘sort out’ VAR handball law
The handball rule is one that has frustrated the Celtic fans to no end since the introduction of video refereeing technology back in October 2022.
And Stewart sounded exasperated when he said Collum needs to fix that first before any other refereeing issue in Scottish football.
Stewart said [Scottish Football Podcast], “Sort out the handball. That’s the headline thing for me. If you look back to when compliance officers came in it was like a flurry of activity and then it died away.
“And it all primarily died away when they just stopped getting involved in everything. I think if Willie Collum is able to address the handball law in particular and he makes that his sole focus to begin with, I think it will take a lot of heat and pressure off things and buys a bit of time to be able to sort others things out.
“So rather than to deal with everyone once, I would be focusing on the handball law in terms of how it’s interpreted and sorting that out, and then it will give them time to address other things.”
Celtic’s introduction to VAR for the first time was at Tynecastle in the 2022/23 season. James Forrest was in the Hearts’ penalty box when their defender handled to ball to stop an attack.
After a VAR review, no penalty was awarded. Celtic suffered again a couple of weeks later at Parkhead when Matt O’Riley was adjudged to have handled the ball and a penalty was awarded despite the Celtic midfielder saying he had no knowledge of the infringement. [The Scottish Sun]
We have also seen a penalty awarded against Celtic when Alexandro Bernabei handled the ball at Celtic Park even though his arm was behind him as he jumped for the ball vs Dundee United.
And the same type of call happened at Tynecastle just this season when Tomoki Iwata was remarkably penalised by yet another dubious penalty call after the VAR operator that day, John Beaton, stepped in.
If Collum can get this flimsy law fixed it will definitely go a long way to building bridges not just between Celtic and the match officials but the whole of Scottish football.