Michael Stewart quizzes Willie Collum on controversial decision given against Celtic at Tynecastle

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Celtic were the victims of some extremely harsh VAR calls last season as Brendan Rodgers looked to defend the Scottish Premiership title.

We discussed earlier this summer and ranked five of the worst VAR decisions ever given against Celtic since the introduction of the refereeing technology two years ago.

Two of the five decisions that made the list were against Hearts at Tynecastle and one of them was just last year where a controversial penalty was given against Tomoki Iwata for a handball he had no control over.

And it was that decision that BBC pundit, Michael Stewart, decided to quiz new SFA Head of Referees, Willie Collum on as the new season approaches and VAR clarity is needed.

Collum discusses ‘sporting integrity’ over Celtic VAR call

Stewart got the chance to ask Collum about the incident and asked him to clarify why the VAR operator was given pass marks, why the decision was given and what guidance was in place at the time for the referees to follow.

Collum replied [Scottish Football Podcast], “There are a couple of things for me. We were issued coaching and it all goes down to the interpretation of the handball.

“You can clearly see that it is different in different countries. If you look at some countries in Europe, I’m not saying it should be, but you can see for example, if you go to Spain, almost every handball is punished there.

“If you look there is a difference last season even in interpretation with our colleagues in England and here as well, but we get issued coaching.

“I think there’s also something to be said about sporting integrity. If you issue guidance at the start of the season, and some clubs or decisions have been affected by that, then you need to continue implementing the line you’ve taken there.

“Most people I’ve spoken to say that when they see some decisions back from last season, they don’t agree with them, but they feel that was the kind of line that we’ve taken.

“When I spoke to the top referees because obviously, I wasn’t in charge in Scottish refereeing last season, but when I spoke to the top referees, we took them to Stirling and we showed them about 48 clips and probably about half of them were about handball and I told them to leave at the door who made the decision because it was time to move forward.

“And sometimes as referees, we really get hung up about how we defend our own decisions, but ask them when they come through that door to look at the clips, look at it neutrally and think where they want to be.

“I also asked the same of the clubs and the managers I said to them, I know this decision might have affected you positively or negatively, but let’s draw a line in the sand, let’s move forward and I hope the clubs, the referees, yourselves here in the media, they will join me in moving things forward.”

The Celtic supporters won’t be holding out much hope of any improvement in VAR standards after being hammered by many controversial decisions over the last two years.

The game is being re-refereed by the new technology and it is clear that there are obvious inconsistencies in how VAR is used to get to decisions in the game.

One thing is for sure, the Celtic fans and the rest of Scottish football will be keeping a close on VAR for next season because if it continues to fail clubs and punish them wrongly, Collum will come under some severe pressure in the early days of his new SFA role.