Willie Collum has finally owned up to an infamous wrong penalty call in a Glasgow derby at Celtic Park.
The retired whistler is now the referee chief at the Scottish FA and he has the role of ensuring VAR is implemented properly in the Scottish Premiership every week.
But it was back in 2010 when the technology was nowhere to be seen where Collum made one of the more controversial Glasgow derby decisions in recent history.
Lumbering Kirk Broadfoot hit the deck despite no touch from former Celtic defender Daniel Majstorovic. And despite Collum appearing to have his back to the play, he still pointed to the spot.
Willie Collum admitted Celtic’s Daniel Majstorovic didn’t foul Kirk Broadfoot
It was a decision which is still talked about today but finally Collum has taken accountability and acknowledged it was wrong… even if he refused to accept that he simply couldn’t see the tackle.
“It was a wrong penalty, you know, again they’re the kind of decisions where people tar you with that brush, you know,” he told the Scottish Sun.
“So it was a penalty awarded, I think it would have been Kirk Broadfoot, so it was a wrong decision, and people will say things like, I didn’t see the decision. What happened was I caught the decision too late, you know.
“If I’d been able to see it from the start, I think I’d have been able to assess it better, but I caught the latter stage of the decision which looked like a penalty to me. But when you look at it back, it’s clearly not a penalty.
“Again, they were things that were said at the time (like he had his back to the decision), but was that really the case? No, you know, I caught the end of that decision, but what I didn’t see was the full picture of it.
“So probably when the challenge was halfway through, which didn’t tell the full picture how the challenge had started. So there’s decisions like that, again if you had VAR, you would have been saved.”
Rangers player Kirk Broadfoot denied diving back in 2010
Broadfoot was accused of diving in the aftermath of the game which Rangers won 3-1 thanks to the pathetic decision.
But despite all the evidence, pundits and ex-referees claiming he had thrown himself to the ground, the former defender wouldn’t budge at the time.
“Of course there was contact – I’m not going to sit here and say I dived,” he said in 2010 when asked if he dived. “There was no way I dived. If you look back at it a million times he’s hit me and has knocked me off balance.
“I wasn’t surprised at the level of the fallout, it’s the same with every Old Firm game.
“They seem to pick on something and keep it going. That’s just the way it is with the Old Firm and you need to be strong to deal with it.
“So it doesn’t bother me being the centre of attention as long as the team wins.”
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