Willie Collum confesses two VAR mistakes were made involving Celtic in November

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The latest edition of the SFA’s VAR Review show has landed and Willie Collum has been poring over two high-profile decisions concerning Celtic.

The November video includes host Gordon Duncan and the SFA’s head of referee operations Collum analysing Daizen Maeda’s disallowed goal against Motherwell and Reo Hatate’s tackle on Kilmarnock’s Liam Donnelly.

It must be noted that the SFA have already said Celtic should have received a penalty for the Maeda incident at Fir Park and that Hatate should have been issued a red card for his challenge on Donnelly.

But now, Collum has rubber-stamped those calls with detailed explanations. You can read what Collum had to say on both flashpoints below.

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Collum on Daizen Maeda Motherwell incident

Motherwell right-back Stephen O’Donnell clearly fouled Maeda inside the penalty area which led to the Japanese winger scoring accidentally with his hand.

The VAR audio from the game tells us that the officials thought Maeda and O’Donnell only had a coming together and from their point of view, it wasn’t penalty and the goal was then disallowed.

But Collum has now said this was the wrong call and Celtic were hard done by. He said: “So for us, the first part is straightforward, it’s a disallowed goal.

“But then the VAR and AVAR should then immediately go into a check regarding a possible penalty. They’ve listened to the referee’s on-field communication, they have given a goal, they’ve not identified the handball.

“And the match referee has also communicated that he thinks it is normal contact between the defender and the attacker. In our opinion, this is not normal contact.

“We think the Celtic attacker is more ahead of the Motherwell defender. We think there is an arm movement by the Motherwell defender and that causes a collision on the ground by the legs.

“So as well as the arms and the legs, we think this should be a penalty kick. We want the on-field referee to be brought over to review this incident and ultimately for us, a penalty kick should have been awarded.”

Collum on Hatate tackle vs Kilmarnock

Hatate’s challenge on Donnelly was checked by the VAR and the audio confirms that the VAR officials believed it wasn’t enough for a red card.

Asked if the tackle should have been a red card, Collum replied: “So for us, Gordon, this is a red card for serious foul play.

“Again, we would like the decision to be identified on-field and a red card issued, but a yellow card was issued. But we also understand it is difficult at full speed.

“When this is reviewed by the VAR, they are very good at looking at various angles. They use criteria so they talk about force, drawing the leg back.

“They do mention that the leg is high and the studs are on the leg. But that’s two criteria that for us is very clear here. The leg is very high, the player arrives late and the studs are full on the leg.

“The criteria that the VAR and AVAR fail to mention is whether this endangers the safety of an opponent. And for us, on review, this does endanger the safety of an opponent.”