The Celtic penalty against Kilmarnock headlines are reappearing after the SFA’s KMI Panel issued their verdict on two Rugby Park claims.
Celtic’s last-minute penalty winner at Rugby Park sparked an incredible VAR rant by Kilmarnock boss Stuart Kettlewell.
Kettlewell was incensed at VAR getting involved in the decision to award the spot kick that helped Celtic on their way to another three Scottish Premiership points.
And the penalty award has caused all sorts of controversy as everyone and their granny seemed to come out and condemn the decision Celtic received.
Which is strange considering not one person did the same when Rangers were awarded over 20 penalties in season 2023/24.
However, we digress. The SFA KMI Panel convened this week and they delivered their verdict on not one, but two penalty decisions in Celtic’s win at Kilmarnock last weekend.
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The SFA KMI Panel’s verdict on possible Sebastian Tounekti Celtic penalty vs Kilmarnock
There were two penalty decisions the KMI Panel reviewed from Celtic’s win at Kilmarnock. The first was when Celtic winger Sebastian Tounekti’s cross was deflected onto Robbie Deas’ arm.
The Kilmarnock defender was pretty much on his goal line when this happened:
The KMI Panel voted 3:0 in favour of the match officials and said, “The on-field decision was unanimously supported.”
And the most high profile of both penalty calls, the handball by Lewis Mayo was again rejected by the SFA panel 2:1.
The panel said, “The majority (2:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision (before VAR intervention) to be correct.
“Two panel members felt the VAR intervention was incorrect and a penalty kick should not have been awarded for a handball.
“One panel member felt VAR was correct to intervene and the decision of a penalty kick for handball after review was correct.”
A majority, yes, but a slim one which proves that the universal condemnation of the penalty award is not as straightforward as many in the media made out.
KMI Panel verdict of Celtic penalty sparks ex-SFA referee’s rant
As soon as the verdict was made public, former SFA referees Des Roache and Steve Conroy put out another rant about the penalty on their social media channel The Ref’s View.
Their post read, “We aren’t the biggest fan of the ‘KMI’ panel but they agree with our assessment on the big calls over the weekend.
“Willie and his comms teams have serious questions to answer for the ridiculous statement they put out after Celtic’s penalty on Sunday and how quick they were [to respond].”
There would be serious questions to be asked if the panel’s vote was completely unanimous, which it wasn’t.
This just proves that the interpretation of the handball rule is still subjective and not as clear cut as many would have us believe.
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