Four full working days after the controversial handling of the Glasgow Derby Celtic have given Willie Collum and his officials their complete backing over Sunday’s events.
The home side won the Derby comfortably enough but beyond the usual dubious decision making of John Beaton, especially his highly selective application of the Advantage Rule there was one decision that almost all Celtic fans want a fuller explanation of.
In the 11th minute Kyogo Furuhashi appeared to open the scoring from a quick break, play was paused with the ‘goal’ disallowed by VAR officials Andrew Dallas and Graeme Stewart, like Beaton and Collum members of the influential Lanarkshire Refereeing Association.
A few minutes after the ‘goal’ was disallowed Sky Sports shared a long range picture with suspicious lines imposed to justify the decision with no follow up provided other than using the distant camera. With Sky Sports covering the match other cameras are available, no Hawkeye footage has been provided to back up the decision made by Dallas.
Celtic 365 emailed Celtic’s Communication Manager Iain Jamieson about the decision and the lack of evidence, 48 hours later there has been no reply. Rarely has someone had such an inappropriate job title, communicating outside an ‘elite’ but dwindling group of legacy media outlets is something that Jamieson hasn’t gone near in over 20 years on the Celtic payroll.
Rather than the usual six cameras available at the other matches over the weekend Dallas and Stewart (thug cop) had the full range of over 20 Sky Sports cameras to make their decision for an incident that the nearside assistant referee didn’t flag for.
At the European Championships in the summer 3D VAR images were quickly produced, the viewer was taken from the camera angle to look along the line with the most marginal decisions cleared up instantly. Except for viewers to the SPFL.
It appears that Celtic are content that VAR was applied correctly, the lines to Nicolas Kuhn and John Souttar on the pitch are true and honest.
In contrast, following Celtic’s 2-1 win in December James Bisgrove and Phil Clement had held a meeting with Ian Maxwell and Crawford Allan within five days of a non-enalty decision being made against Celtic. The follow up ensured that Collum wouldn’t referee or be on VAR duty for an SPFL match for more than four months while David Dickinson, Alan Muir and Steven McLean were overloaded with appointments.
Even using the cropping tool in windows you can see that these lines are not parallel and therefore shouldn’t be used to distinguish if someone is offside or not. Someone’s completely at it pic.twitter.com/8e3RRJ0lY2
— The Huddleboard (@huddleboard) September 2, 2024
If the image above was used it calls into question the whole VAR system, the equipment and those operating it.
How they decide the moment that Callum McGregor strikes the ball and transfer that into the exact positions of Kuhn and Souttar is up for debate, there will be a human element to it which introduces a margin for error.
What isn’t beyond question is the two lines used in the image given to Sky Sports. The blue line from Souttar’s shoulder towards the pitch leans slightly towards the defender, the red line from Kuhn leans slightly away from him.
At half time Sky Sports barely covered the offside ‘goal’ there was no forensic analysis and no mention after the match.
Brendan Rodgers wasn’t convinced about the decision as he hinted at during some after-match interviews but with Celtic winning 3-0 that early decision hasn’t had anything like the scrutiny given to a disallowed goal at Ibrox last September following a foul on Gus Lagerbielke or a penalty claim against Alastair Johnston when Abdallah Sima was in an offside position.
Two weeks ago the SFA contacted BBC Scotland during the match coverage to explain a decision made by Matthew MacDermid who u-turned on a foul awarded to St Johnstone to allow a goal by Cyriel Dessers to stand.
Before the season started Willie Collum went on a round of media interviews to explain how things would be different this season with VAR specialist Jon Moss brought in to introduce transparency.
A month into the season Collum has fallen silent, to the surprise of no-one there has been virtually no mainstream coverage of the incident and the inconclusive ‘evidence’ offered up by the SFA.
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If you are in the VAR room & this goal is scored & there is no call from the linesman who is up with play, why do you analyse the move to find out if it is offside? Why? If the linesman flags offside then yes have a look at it, but he didn’t. We need an explanation.@scottishfa
— Gentile (@Gentile_Rivera) September 2, 2024
Honestly, you don’t even need editing. Look at the pitch lines. Souttar is on the crease, Kuhn is behind it. Both run in same direction, similar leaning. But were to believe 5ft8 Kuhn would lean further than 6ft1 Souttar? Just pure biomechanics makes this an impossibility. pic.twitter.com/msYcWyOSLq
— Viewsfrom443 (@443Celtic) September 2, 2024
You’d think in 2024 these people would be too terrified to do things like this, with literally millions watching on TV. But no, it continues because it is never made enough of an issue.
— cowabunga1.2 (@2Cowabunga1) September 3, 2024
from that VAR angle Parallax Error will distort the true position of players ! We need more cameras , not a cheap subjective system, thankfully justice prevailed but Dallas & Beaton should never referee a Derby again !
— Sunny Bhoy (@Tenerifetim10) September 2, 2024
Whys he using Kuhn’s shoulder and Souttar’s armpit? pic.twitter.com/7WEQwX8hIf
— Ferriebhoy (@Ferriebhoy) September 3, 2024
Andrew Dallas awarded 10 penalties to Rangers in the last 14 games he reffed involving Rangers.
(Not including VAR appearances).He is the son of disgraced former head of refs in Scotland, Hugh Dallas.
Andrew now draws squinty lines with VAR.
I only post facts.
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) September 3, 2024
5 Comments
by Eddie
The real question is when are the board going to challenge this cheating. It will end up hurting us. Also, having won the game that would have been the ideal time to ask for answers.
by Terence Nova
Our Board’s two favourite songs .. Silence is Golden…and…The Sound of Silence…Says it all really.
by Treble-T
It was reported on another site that Celtic had in fact asked the SFA for information on the offside goal. Audio etc
by Editor
I suspect wishful thinking. No leaks to faithful media messengers, no word of meetings with Collum and Maxwell at Hampden. SFA know they won’t get more than a surprised and disappointed statement out of Celtic with zero follow up.
by TicToc
Call it out as FRAUD, that’s what it is and it’s criminal when businesses are involved, and those involved are ALL businesses. The PLCs are accountable so FFS you guys who run blogs, get the CSCs, other bloggers, shareholders and supporters together and ACT. Bleating on line is just pissing into the wind.