BBC Sportscene has suggested the officials in charge of Celtic’s match against Kilmarnock should have ignored the rules and disallowed Luis Palma’s superb first-half strike.
Palma received the ball after Killie player Stuart Findlay kicked it off Reo Hatate, who had been in an offside position when the Honduran played an initial pass. He then rocketed a fine effort past goalkeeper Will Dennis.
The laws of the game state that a player in an offside position who receives the ball from an opponent deliberately playing it is not considered to have gained an advantage, which was even brought up to the panel consisting of Chris Iwelumo and Michael Stewart.
Speaking on the BBC highlights show, Iwelumo insisted that Hatate was interfering with play, while Stewart suggested the rules should be simplified. Both of them convey they feel the goal shouldn’t have stood – which is a bit absurd.
The refereeing and VAR teams covering the Celtic match are there to enforce the laws in place, not take initiative and referee the game based on what they deem is optimal or ‘common sense’. That’s the way of it in this technology age.
In this instance, it was determined that Findlay made a deliberate act in playing the ball before Hatate received it, therefore when it hit the Japanese star he was not offside. That seems quite clear-cut.
I understand that these close calls provoke debate and if you’re a Kilmarnock fan it’s not ideal. But video technology means that with time to consider the rulebook and cameras to scrutinise the smallest of details, the letter of the law will be followed.
In this instance, Celtic benefitted, but there have been a fair amount of tight calls that have gone against us too.
In other news, Celtic show interest in ‘powerful’ Championship attacker.
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