Of all the things Ange Postecoglou said about VAR and handballs at the weekend, he was most accurate with one assessment – the Scottish FA are deeming any contact with the ball and hand in a defender’s own box as a penalty.
That’s not necessarily how the IFAB rules should be considered and implemented, with definitions of natural and unnatural positioning explicit in their guidance. Nonetheless, it seems to be the policy that the SFA and their officials are pursuing.
That was never more apparent than in last night’s remarkable match between Livingston and Aberdeen, in which three handball penalties were given after VAR reviews conducted by Nick Walsh – coincidentally the same referee who refused to give a penalty to Celtic at Tynecastle for a similar incident involving Michael Smith.
As always, opinion varies on whether the penalties should or should not have been given in West Lothian. With either view, the conclusion drawn has to be the same as Postecoglou’s, the SFA aren’t going to be giving defenders much benefit of the doubt when considering whether a position is natural or not.
It’s a new reality that we are now dealing with the implementation of VAR. Many of these incidents are easy to miss for referees in real time, but now apparently being clamped down on with the technology in place.
Ultimately Celtic may both benefit from and be on the receiving end of what would be considered harsh decisions. You would hope there is a balance there going forward if the new system is truly functioning as it’s supposed to.
However, it does bring the incident at Tynecastle back to the fore as an extremely odd outlier. Nick Walsh didn’t even get guidance to review this incident on a TV screen at the side of the pitch. We know Celtic requested clarification on this in the week after, but for us outsiders, it remains a mystery as to what went on.
Postecoglou suggested that this kind of enforcement of handball incidents may well lead to defenders having to adjust their game and it’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case in the Bhoys’ box over the coming weeks and months.
Regardless, expect to see many more VAR handball incidents in Scotland adding another layer of chaos to the game.
In other news, 5 changes, big league return; Celtic Predicted XI vs Motherwell.
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