Day of Shame for SFA as their officials take levelling up to incredible lengths

With the Clement Revolution! on the brink of meltdown the SFA officials on duty at Ibrox and Fir Park came up with some incredible decisions as the gap between the two Glasgow clubs remained at a tolerable six points.

Two of the three full time VAR officials were om duty with Alan Muir minding the action at Motherwell where David Dickinson was the referee, at Ibrox rookie Calum Scott was kept on the right track but Greg Aitken, a stalwart of the Ayrshire Refereeing Association.

Despite bring in an era of transparency and accountability Willie Collum is unlikely to be heard this week leaving Gordon Duncan to spin on behalf of the SFA.

With the four clubs involved in those matches meeting up against at Hampden next weekend in the semi-finals of the League Cup the SFA has a major problem as they attempt to spread the thinnest talent pool far and wide.

The visit of any club to Ibrox these days carries a threat, not at their best last week Kilmarnock achieved their second SPFL win of the season to highlight how vulnerable Phil Clement’s side are.

Scott has ticked the boxes to get his first Ibrox appointment from the SFA, he wasn’t going to jeopardise his ascent up the ranks with Aitken on hand just to make sure that he came to the right decisions.

Michael Stewart described the St Mirren penalty claim as:

The contact’s not immediately obvious, but there’s a close-up and you see that Kasanwirjo catches Olusanya when he’s spinning.

When you’re spinning like that and you’re knocked off, that’s a foul. That should have been given as a penalty kick for me, I’m surprised it wasn’t given.

Scott opted out of the penalty decision, calling play back to give St Mirren a pointless free-kick 45 yards from goal. Later on he ignored a Kung Fu challenge by Connor Barron, far more dangerous than the incident at Tynecastle in March that saw Yang Hyun-jun sent off by Don Robertson.

Muir has a lengthy track record of refusing to award Celtic stretching back to the 2015 SFA Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle.

Something strange went on yesterday as Daizen Maeda bundled the ball into the Motherwell net soon after Luke McCowan had scored the opening goal.

Muir reviewed it, spotted the handball but despite multiple camera angles he was unable to put two and two together to find out why Maeda ended up horizontal on the turf.

Play restarted with a free kick to Motherwell, the sort of decision that Celtic fans have come to expect from match officials.

The VAR officials for this weekend’s League Cup semi-finals will almost certainly be selected from Muir, Aitken and Dallas.