Why Celtic TV lost its signal vs St Mirren and its impact on VAR

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Celtic had the opportunity to go 13 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership this afternoon after Ranger dropped points at Hibs.

Rangers’ bottle crashed after beating Celtic at the seventh attempt of asking as they went to Easter Road this afternoon and played out a 3-3 draw after going 2-0 up early doors.

That handed an advantage to Brendan Rodgers whose Celtic starting XI against the Buddies carried a number of changes as the Hoops manager sent a message to his players by making four changes to the team that lost the New Year derby.

The game was being televised live on Celtic TV and in the 50th minute, the screens on the club TV channel turned green as fans suffered at TV blackout.

Celtic Park power outage causes TV blackout and VAR problems

A power outage caused problems not only for Celtic TV but also on BBC Radio Scotland as the broadcasters lost the ability to provide coverage of the game.

BBC pitchside reporter Andy Burke said, “For a few seconds Celtic Park is plunged into almost complete darkness as the floodlights cut out!

“A few gasps from the crowd followed by an ironic cheer as the lights come back to life a few seconds later.

“Somebody tripping over the master plug, perhaps?”

Celtic TV fluttered back on and off and whilst the picture returned ten minutes later, it was pixelated with no match commentary.

The picture went off again on the 60th minute and returned late on in the game.

Celtic Park blackout vs St Mirren and its impact on VAR

As the fans were left confused, the men in the VAR van got the rest of the afternoon off as the video referee was left out of action due to the power cut.

Although the electricity returned to Celtic Park, the VAR remained offline as both teams agreed to play on before the video referee resumed duties just before Adam Idah’s goal that was ruled offside.

Hopefully, the issue will be ironed out before the Dundee United game on Wednesday as Celtic look to solidify their position at the top of the table with another three Scottish Premiership points.