Celtic fans were finally delivered an important piece of VAR audio and a Willie Collum explanation on Friday night.
Of course, it all centres around the Daizen Maeda goal against Hibs that was disallowed by VAR Alan Muir after initially being awarded as a goal on-field.
Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston was adjudged to have not kept the ball in play as he crossed in for Maeda to make the scoreline 2-2 at Easter Road.
It would have been a crucial goal in the context of the match, but in the end, Celtic went on to lose 2-1 on a sluggish afternoon for Brendan Rodgers’ men.
Rodgers was fuming after the game and accused Muir of guesswork because the camera angles available lacked conclusive evidence to prove the ball was fully over the byline.
Des Roache and Steve Conroy slam VAR audio of disallowed Celtic goal
The KMI panel ruled Maeda’s goal should have stood due to the inconclusive evidence to factually overturn the goal.
And that viewpoint was backed up by the SFA’s head of referees Willie Collum, who admitted Muir made a huge mistake in the VAR booth.
Now, two former Grade 1 Scottish referees Des Roache and Steve Conroy have weighed in on the situation having heard the VAR audio released by the SFA in The VAR Review show.
It shows Muir pausing at a still of the match footage and determining that the ball is factually over the line. Roache and Conroy says the audio is “damning” and like Rodgers, accused Muir of guessing.
Collum’s explanation was also criticised with the whole scandal branded ‘a total mess’.
Writing on The Ref’s View account on X, the pair said: “Yeah it’s as bad and damming as we thought, there is absolutely no way that goal should have been overturned.
“Alan Muir has made two calls in a VAR room this year regarding decisions on a line and guessed them. Willie doesn’t cover himself in glory either, a total mess.”
Willie Collum’s confession as Celtic denied goal by VAR
Collum explained that the VARs and AVARs are coached to make a decision based off of 100 percent conclusive evidence – on this occasion, that coaching did not prove fruitful.
He said that it is simply impossible to prove the ball was fully over the line. Collum said on The VAR Review show: “The starting point is – what is the on-field decision?
“The on-field decision is the assistant referee keeps the flag down and a goal is scored. So as far as the assistant referee is concerned the ball has not gone out of play.
“The VAR and AVAR of course go into a check, which they’re expected to do. They need to assess with the cameras and the footage available if the ball’s out of play.
“You hear the VAR at one point saying you know it looks like the ball’s out of play from a particular angle and the AVAR correctly says ‘I don’t think you can be conclusive there’. Then an angle appears from the main camera which is zoomed in and you hear a reaction.
“However what I want to be very clear about in this clip and we coach the VARs and the AVARs to be to be certain about this. You need 100% conclusive evidence to disallow the goal here and prove that the ball is over the goal line and in this case that’s not possible.
“It’s not possible to prove categorically that the ball has crossed the goal line fully because we know from previous examples at World Cups, a ball can look out from certain angles.
“But then when you look at the camera above, a slight part, a millimetre of the ball can be overhanging that goal line and that’s enough to say the ball’s in play. So on this occasion, for us, we expect the on-field decision to be supported and a goal awarded.
“I would also say if the assistant referee had flagged here and said in his opinion the ball had crossed the line for a goal kick we would also expect that decision to be supported because there’s no 100% conclusive evidence. It’s impossible to prove otherwise.”
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