Away from Celtic’s defeat to Motherwell for a second, here we take a look at the SFA KMI Panel’s verdict on the penalty the Bhoys were awarded against Livingston.
Celtic beat Livingston 4-2 after Wilfried Nancy watched his side go behind twice in the first ten minutes of the match inside the Set Fare Arena.
Goals from Benjamin Nygren, Hyunjun Yang and Arne Engels sealed Nancy’s second win as the Celtic boss but, as always, there was some VAR controversy to boot.
Celtic’s penalty award enraged David Martindale as the Livingston boss was adamant that the spot kick should not have stood.
Where does Wilfried Nancy go from here?
Well now, the SFA KMI Panel have delivered their verdict on the VAR decision and it will make Martindale’s penalty tears even worse.
SFA KMI panel agree Celtic’s penalty award vs Livingston was correct
As ever, the KMI Panel convene weekly to review any contentious decisions made by VAR or match officials and what they said about Celtic’s penalty will leave Martindale spewing.
The panel said on the SFA website:
- Difficulty rating: 4. A difficult decision for officials with a high degree of subjectivity or challenging considerations to identify. One that needs deliberation. A 50/50 call.
- KMI On-field decision outcome: Incorrect
- On-field vote result: 1:2
- VAR intervention: Y
- KMI VAR intervention outcome: Correct
- Vote: 2:1
- KMI Final Decision outcome: Correct
- Vote: 2:1
- Comments: The majority (2:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision of no handball to be Incorrect. Two panel members felt VAR was correct to intervene and a penalty was correctly awarded after On Field Review. One panel member felt that VAR was incorrect to intervene and a penalty was the incorrect decision.
What David Martindale said about Celtic penalty in full
Martindale made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t happy with VAR intervening and awarding Celtic the penalty.
In fact, so raging was the Livingston boss he said it numerous times during his post-match Celtic meltdown.
Martindale said at the weekend, “So I don’t think it’s a penalty because the game could have been a lot closer than what it was.
“It’s a fantastic strike with Nygren. We’ve got to defend our box better at the two set-plays. The one that leads to the penalty, which I don’t think is a penalty.
“And obviously the goal from Nygren, that’s disappointing. There’s a lot of positives within the game as well.
“I felt we posed a real threat. I thought we’d create some good chances ourselves. We took two fantastic goals, like three or four, very good chances in the second half, couple of better chances in the first half.
“In terms of the one we were clean through, I think we should do a wee bit better. Those are the positives within the game.
“Disappointed with the soft penalty and disappointed with Nygren’s goal at the back post.”
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