VAR has been a constant thorn in Celtic’s side ever since it was introduced to the Scottish Premiership last season.
The amount of decisions that have gone against the club has been incredible. And this weekend it was no different for Celtic.
Liam Scales had a perfectly good goal chalked off for an apparent infringement by Celtic striker, Hyeongyu Oh. Replays showed that Oh was only challenging for the ball and that because his arm was on the Ross County defender (and the fact that he threw himself to the ground) VAR determined that the goal should not stand.
But it wasn’t that decision that seriously irked former Celtic hero Peter Grant. Speaking on the BBC, Grant was seriously bemused by the offside decision given against Daizen Maeda that led to Oh’s goal also being wiped out.
Grant said [BBC Sportscene], “It was incredibly tight. I still think it’s onside actually. And you see the lines, the lines seem to be together.
“It’s a fantastic ball here from Bernardo but great movement from Maeda.
“And you look at it again you think even that time you think he’s onside. And it’s a great ball across, fantastic finish for Oh who done fantastically well.
“But when you look at these lines, it was always supposed to be the forward that got the advantage and that’s why I can’t believe that he chopped it off.”
At the end of the day, any VAR call that has gone wrongly against Celtic hasn’t cost them any points or trophies. Yet.
But one day it could. Celtic are always competing for silverware in Scotland and despite VAR decisions going against the club, they have remained the dominant force domestically.
Mistakes happen, I get that, but when a tool that is introduced to reduce these mistakes just keeps following the same pattern, what can clubs do?
VAR is here to stay. The fans will, and have, just need to accept it. But what they can’t accept is the same mistakes happening over and over again. And that is something the game’s governing bodies must look at before more officiating errors eventually cost clubs silverware.
In other news, ‘Strange one’: 22-year-old Celtic player is now being watched by Premier League club