Willie Collum has admitted that Celtic should’ve been awarded a penalty kick against Hibs earlier this month.
With the scores level at 1-1 in the second half, Benjamin Nygren moved to get goalside of Josh Campbell in the box.
The Hibs man moved to shield the ball out of play, but after misjudging how close he was to the byline, he pushed Nygren to the ground with two hands in a desperate scramble to keep him away from the ball.
In a classic case of selective outrage, we haven’t heard much about this decision, as Celtic won the game — but Collum has now made it clear: they were wrongly denied a penalty.
The VAR audio confirms what we already knew… but hysterical reactions continue 👀
Willie Collum on Celtic penalty call vs Hibs: ‘this should’ve been a penalty’
The VARs describe the challenge as Campbell “shepherding the ball” with “upper body contact”.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that they make their decision after watching the footage for two seconds.
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Collum then admitted: “It’s more than [shepherding the ball] for us here, without a doubt.
“You will see people, there will be nudging, there will be a slight push in the back as people go towards the touchline.
“But two things are crucial for me in this incident: that Josh Campbell completely ignores the ball, the ball’s still technically within playing distance…
“And it’s a two-handed push. When you nudge somebody, and there’s a bit of upper body contact as players go over the goal line, that’s normal footballing contact.
“This is far removed from normal footballing contact. It should’ve been a penalty given on field, and if missed on field, it should’ve resulted in a VAR intervention.
“[It’s a] really good angle here; it’s a live game on Sky. The reverse camera helps us a lot here, and Josh Campbell takes too much of a risk, and this should’ve been a penalty kick.
“I’ve even heard people talking about… if the two players were off the field here, and the ball’s still in play, the laws have changed: that would still constitute a penalty kick.
“This is too excessive for us to ignore, and moving forward, we would expect to punish that.”
Should Celtic comment on the selective outrage after VAR’s reviews of the run-in decision?
VAR on Joe Newell’s goal for Hibs against Celtic
Earlier on in the same game, Hibs’ Joe Newell’s equaliser stood despite slow-motion replays seemingly showing the ball touching his arm as he brought it down
Unlike the penalty call, the VAR meticulously reviews the incident frame-by-frame, before deciding that the evidence is inconclusive.
That’s despite even Kris Boyd — yes, Kris Boyd — admitting on air that the goal looked like it should’ve been disallowed.
Collum backed up the VAR’s opinion that the footage wasn’t conclusive.
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