The most damning part of the SFA KMI Panel’s verdict on St Mirren’s ‘goal’ vs Hearts Celtic fans won’t believe

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Hearts are still in the hunt to challenge Celtic for the title after a wee helping hand from VAR against St Mirren last month.

Hearts looked on course to suffer their first defeat of the season in Paisley after St Mirren went 3-1 up, and for a minute, it looked like Celtic were about to close the gap at the top of the table.

VAR stepped in, however, and chalked the goal off and Hearts then rescued a point to record a 2-2 draw to keep a six-point gap from Celtic.

And now, the SFA KMI Panel have delivered their verdict on the decision by VAR to intervene and it will cause Celtic supporters to roll their eyes.

• READ MORE: Celtic told to recall loan player Brendan Rodgers ‘didn’t like’ who ‘never put a foot wrong’

The ‘offside’ St Mirren goal vs Hearts that also cost Celtic

If St Mirren’s third goal had stood, there is no doubt Steven Robinson’s side would have gone on to win that match.

And it appears that the KMI Panel have a different view on the goal that VAR now seem to have wrongly chalked off.

The report on the SFA website states, “The panel unanimously agreed the on-field decision of goal to be correct.

“The panel members felt the VAR intervention should not have taken place and the goal should not
have been disallowed after OFR for offside.”

The vote was unanimous as the panel voted 3:0 against VAR. But that wasn’t the most damning statistic.

The KMI Panel’s difficulty rating for St Mirren decision that cost Celtic

The worst part of this debacle is how easy it should have been to come to the correct decision on the day.

The KMI Panel have a difficulty grading system on how hard each of the decisions they review should have been for the officials to get right. With number one being the easiest to number five being the toughest.

This is how they explain them:

• 1. A simple decision that all officials should get correct.
• 2. A fairly simple decision for a select group official, though with more factors to consider.
• 3. A more complex decision with a greater degree of subjectivity and/or more factors to consider, that a select group official should nonetheless call correctly.
• 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.
• 5. A particularly tough decision that all referees would struggle with. The type of judgement where technology is needed to support officials.

The St Mirren goal was graded at a difficulty level 1, which is a damning indictment on how that wrong call could cost Celtic in the long run as Hearts continue to challenge for the title.