Frank McAvennie’s VAR rage after Celtic/Rangers incidents as ex-SFA ref shares corners ‘nightmare’

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Frank McAvennie has let his feelings on VAR become crystal clear after Auston Trusty was sent off in Celtic’s defeat to Hibs.

Celtic lost their SFA appeal and now Trusty has to serve a three-game ban which rules the US defender out of games against Rangers, Aberdeen and Motherwell.

And here, McAvennie has told the SFA to ‘get rid of’ VAR as he labels the use of video technology in the Scottish game as ’embarrassing’.

VAR in Scottish football: incompetent refs, bad technology or both?

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McAvennie said on Let Me Be Frank, “Get rid of VAR because we’re embarrassing ourselves up here.

“So many of the decisions at the weekend were embarrassing and it’s not even as if you can understand why we made that mistake.”

McAvennie tells SFA ‘don’t give me all that’ after Celtic Park controversies

The former Celtic striker was clearly fuming with VAR as he delivered his verdict on what he thought about Trusty’s red card.

McAvennie continued, “Yeah, it’s just embarrassing and VAR shouldn’t have been involved. They shouldn’t be getting involved in things.

“I mean, that [Trusty] sending off, he shoved his arm away, how’s that aggressive? Don’t give me all that.

“Then the Scales one, but then there’s the one at Rangers. I mean if it’s not a penalty, it’s a free kick, and if it’s a free kick, it’s a sending off .

“I know it’s in the last minute and you don’t want people sent off.”

Former SFA referee John Bowbotham on corner ‘nightmare’

The Trusty red card has opened up a can of worms about how corners are refereed after the Celtic Park official was forced to change his mind.

And speaking from his experience, former SFA referee John Rowbotham told McAvennie the problems refs have at corners.

Rowbotham said, “I tell you, corner kicks are a nightmare for a referee to judge because you’ve got,
say, 15-16 players in the box and there’s pulling and blocking and arms wrapped round and it’s a [nightmare].”

Nightmare or not, the application of the basic rules of VAR is what the bigger issue is here and, until that gets sorted, these types of controversies will continue to happen.