Ex-FIFA referee Mark Clattenburg’s surprising verdict on Celtic penalty award that annoyed David Martindale

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Mark Clattenburg has delivered his verdict on the Celtic penalty against Livingston that left David Martindale fuming.

The Livingston boss was raging that Celtic were awarded a spot kick to allow the Bhoys to go 4-2 ahead as the game was hanging in the balance.

In a mad 10 minute period, Celtic battled back from being behind twice to beat Livingston 4-2 and the penalty allowed Wilfried Nancy’s side to extand their lead when the score was 3-2.

After a lengthy VAR review, referee Matthew MacDairmid decided to point to the spot and Arne Engels dutifully put the ball away to give Celtic the lead.

And when we approached former FIFA and Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg for his thoughts on the penalty award, his answer is likely to surprise plenty of Celtic supporters.

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Mark Clattenburg says Celtic penalty vs Livingston was a foul by Daizen Maeda

Celtic have seen handballs awarded against them in similar fashion in the Scottish Premiership so in the interest of consistency, this should have been a straightforward award.

Not according to Clattenburg.

Clattenburg told 67 Hail Hail, “From a corner, the ball comes off the arm of Livingston’s Daniel Finlayson.

“I believe there is a push by Celtic’s Daizen Maeda on Finlayson which puts him off balance and this is the reason his arm comes up while jumping for the ball.

“A defensive free kick should have been the final outcome instead of a penalty kick as the push was the first offence.

“If we look at the handball as an isolated incident, it would have been extremely harsh to award as some weeks there are given and some not. This creates the frustration in Scottish football at the moment involving handball incidents.”

What Mark Clattenburg said about the Liam Scales Celtic handball vs Hibs

As previously mentioned, Celtic defender Liam Scales was done against Hibs for a similar incident so we decided to look at Clattenburg’s comments based solely on the handball alone for comparison.

Clattenburg told us back in November, “It’s extremely harsh for the award of a VAR penalty for a handball by Liam Scales against Hibernian.

“The arms are in a natural position and he cannot do anything to change the arm position as another player makes an attempt to head the ball.

“Handball is so controversial and this is another example of this.”

The former referee is consistent in his view that handball awards in Scottish football are very unfair and it looks like Willie Collum may have a hard time ahead explaining Celtic’s penalty against Livingston if he shares the view of Clattenburg.