Michael Stewart and two former Grade One SFA referees verdict on potential Arne Engels’ Celtic red card vs Hibs

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Celtic’s win over Hibs passed by with very little controversy as the Hoops stretched their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership yesterday afternoon.

Goals from Arne Engels and Kyogo Furuhashi secured Celtic’s win as well as an own goal from Hibs’ Joe Newell as Brendan Rodgers’ team recorded their 60th win over the Easter Road club.

However, there was an incident in the first half, where Celtic were subjected to a VAR review as Arne Engels appeared to stand on a Hibs player’s leg as both players challenged for the ball.

VAR deemed the challenge not to be a red card but that is not a view that has been shared as two ex-SFA referees and Michael Stewart deliver differing verdicts on whether or not the Celtic midfielder should have been sent for an early bath.

Celtic’s Arne Engels should have seen a ‘red card’ vs Hibs

First up are the two former SFA referees, Des Roache and Steve Conroy. Formerly of Behind The Whisltes podcast, both are now part of a new podcast account called The Ref’s View.

And replying to a fan saying that based on Hibs pair Jonathan Obita and Joe Newell’s red cards earlier in the season, Engels should have been sent off, it appears both former referees agree.

Taking to social media channel X, they said, “I would agree completely. However, we will never get complete agreement while human judgement is involved. Red Card for us.”

It seems that even ex-refs and current refs can’t seem to agree on what is deemed serious foul play and what is not.

So what does Michael Stewart think?

Michael Stewart’s ‘borderline’ verdict on Celtic’s Arne Engels’ red card but it’s not what fans think

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Stewart was not having any talk of Engels being sent off as he said that the challenge was a ‘borderline’ yellow.

Stewart said, “You could potentially give a free kick. I don’t think it’s a booking. There’s no there’s no force, though.

“I think he’s going across to make the challenge his on his feet, I mean I think it’s even borderline for a yellow because there’s no force. There’s no force.”

It was good to see common sense prevail but as always with VAR, and as this article has proven, a lot of decisions are open to subjectivity and how the rules of the game are applied based on opinion.