The VAR audio has been released for Alistair Johnston’s tackle against Rangers.
The Celtic defender was booked despite winning the ball with a tackle on Mikey Moore, though some on the Ibrox side think it warranted further punishment.
It has also been cited by Hearts fans convinced that the referees were conspiring to prevent them from winning the Scottish Premiership title.
The VAR audio makes it clear that the criteria for a red card wasn’t met.
The VAR audio confirms what we already knew… but hysterical reactions continue 👀
VAR audio and Willie Collum: Celtic’s Alistair Johnston tackle vs Rangers ‘reckless’
In the audio, via Sky Sports, the assistants can be heard making a thorough judgement that Johnston mainly makes contact with the bottom of Moore’s foot.
Rather than having force on the area above, the contact is correctly described as a ‘glance’.
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Willie Collum then explains: “We’re looking for excessive force. We’re looking for brutality. Ultimately, we’re looking for endangering the safety of an opponent. We don’t think it meets that criteria.
“We agree with the referee that it’s reckless. Also, the VAR [decision] is reckless.
“There is contact more in the top of the foot with the heel here, but there’s no doubt—you can even hear the VAR talking about it at the end of the check—about glancing contact on the shin, not full studs but glancing contact with the studs.
“We need to move away from the scenario that every time there’s contact above the foot we categorically say it’s a red card. There are two points I want to make here:
“The first one is about glancing contact, Gordon. The other one is about an expression used recently by UEFA; it’s quite an interesting concept about on-off contact. When you hear that, you think what exactly does that mean?
“We’re not talking about contact where it’s on and it’s pushing through, full foot, full studs, forcing the ankle bend. A bit similar to the challenge at Tannadice for the red card shown to the Dundee United player.
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“Also, the difference in that tackle was that two players are face-on to each other.
“I think an important point of this tackle as well is that when Alastair Johnston enters into the tackle, he’s off the ground, he’s lunging. He’s in a dangerous position. But then how does he arrive? Much lower than when he initially enters the tackle.
“He’s not head-on to Moore at that point. Moore is coming towards him directly at that point. Also, when he arrives, his leg is bent.
“So when the VAR is checking this, they have to say, “Is there anything more we would show the referee here that he hasn’t been able to see to make it a red card?” For us, it meets the criteria for reckless.”
It goes without saying that when Collum mentions the criteria for ‘reckless’, he is referring to the rules that reckless tackles are punishable with a yellow card, as Johnston was on the pitch.
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