Celtic legend Kenny Dalglish has again been discussing the situation surrounding refereeing and VAR in Scottish football, feeling that we need to start seeing consistency in the top flight.
Dalglish has previously used his Sunday Post column to call for more Scottish FA transparency on the roll-out of the new technology and today took aim at decisions made last weekend.
He reviewed the odd calls made by Willie Collum at Ibrox in the match between Rangers and St Johnstone, stating it was ‘alarming’ that both Collum and VAR officials came to the decision to send off Nicky Clark – a decision that was later overturned on appeal.
The icon also reckons that a red card should have been given to Dundee United in the match against Celtic after Kieran Freeman seemingly deliberately handled the ball, but wasn’t given a second yellow card.
Speaking to The Sunday Post [05/02 print edition, Post Match supplement page 20], Dalglish said: “Strange decisions also took place at Tannadice during Celtic’s visit when the referee, Don Robertson, failed to show Kieran Freeman a second yellow card after a hand-ball that resulted in a penalty.
“Now, we don’t want to see players red-carded if it can be avoided. However, there needs to be consistency. There can’t be one rule one week for an incident, and a different rule the next week when something very similar happens.
“This season, on both sides of the border, the hand-ball rule has caused more debate than anything else. I sometimes struggle to comprehend what it’s all about.
“Surely there must be something more straightforward to help referees when these incidents occur? The current rules on handball need to change – and the sooner the better. When I played, handball was only given if it appeared deliberate. Now the rule is so much more complex and confusing.”
Scottish FA could help an already complicated situation
The lack of clarity or consistency on handballs is indeed infuriating – not just for fans but also for players and managers. Nobody really seems to know how to approach the IFAB guidance – not even referees.
This is something that will hopefully be reviewed later in the year but it’s only part of the problem. If the Scottish FA managed to come up with its own framework, even within the current rules, which was clearly communicated to the public, we might be able to move on in a more constructive fashion.
As it is, it seems they just want to keep hiding despite more and more bad decisions.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou having heart-to-heart talks on futures of Celtic trio.
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