Alan Muir- two strikes and out? Time up for VAR official?

Will Willie Collum dare to put Alan Muir back on VAR duty this season with a Celtic fixture a particular problem.

Today, almost two weeks after Brendan Rodgers claimed that he had guessed at a decision to disallow a ‘goal’ from Daizen Maeda the SFA confirmed that the Celtic boss called it right.

What next then for Muir?

Since he wrongly disallowed what would have been a Celtic equaliser at Easter Road he has been left out of two rounds of SPFL fixtures and this weekends four Scottish Cup ties.

The incident at Easter Road is bad enough but earlier this season he ‘missed’ a push on Maeda by Stephen O’Donnell that should have resulted in a penalty for Celtic. Muir did notice that the forward had put the ball in the net with his arm but failed to highlight the push.

With just three full-time VAR officials they are in demand for the high profile matches, Muir has been on duty at 6 of Celtic’s 29 SPFL matches, just over 20%.

The extent of the error at Easter Road is is one thing but hearing the audio is even more damning, he sounds like an opposition fan desperately trying to find something, anything to disallow the goal.

Finally he found the ‘evidence’ to back up his wish, from a camera on the 18 yard line looking through Alistair Johnston he found the conclusive angle that the ball was out.

Whether the ball was in or out is no longer an issue, the problem for Muir is that there absolutely wasn’t factual evidence that the ball had gone out of play.

On today’s VAR Review Collum admitted:

Let’s think what the starting point is? The starting point is the on-field decision. The on-field decision is the assistant referee keeps the flag down and a goal is scored. So, as far as the assistant referee is concerned, the ball has not gone out of play. The VAR and AVAR of course go into a check, which they are expected to do so. They need to assess with the cameras and the footage available if the ball is out of play.

You hear the VAR at one point say that it looks like it’s gone out of play from a particular angle, and then AVAR correctly says ‘I don’t think you can be conclusive there’. Then an angle appears from the main camera and you hear a reaction, the VAR and AVAR both think at that point that’s evidence to say the ball is out of play.

Now, what I want to be very clear about, and we coach the VAR’s and AVAR’s to be certain about this, you need 100 per cent conclusive evidence to disallow the goal here and prove that the ball is over the goal line. And in this case, that is not possible. It’s not possible.

Of course Muir has plenty of previous for baffling decisions regarding Celtic, he has been watched closely since his Additional Assistant role in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi final defeat from Inverness Caley Thistle. Google ‘Josh Meeking handball’ if you need a reminder

Incredible to think that a VAR official (Alan Muir today) watched this and doesn’t think Daizen Maeda is fouled.

He has a simple tap-in a few yards from goal and O’Donnell literally just bundles through the back of him.

An incredible decision which fortunately didn’t cost us. pic.twitter.com/mnXp47wg89

— ᴘʙ 🍀 (@p_bov1) October 27, 2024

Discussing the Maeda penalty incident at Motherwell Collum had no defence for Muir’s decision to notice handball from the Celtic forward but not the push on him by Stephen O’Donnell.

For us, this is not normal contact. We think the Celtic attacker is more ahead of the Motherwell defender. We think that is an arm movement by the Motherwell defender and also then causes a collision in the ground as well by the legs as well as the arm.

We think this should be a penalty kick. We want the referee to be brought to on-field review to award a penalty kick here.

Celtic have a goal disallowed ❌

Daizen Maeda finds the net after an Alistair Johnston cross, but VAR concluded that the ball had just went over the line before the Canadian made contact 🤏#HIBCEL pic.twitter.com/2miS1tfDUo

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) February 22, 2025

It is fairly routine for a referee to get dropped down a division for a game or two after a high profile mistake then come back into the fold once the heat dies down.

With just three full-time VAR officials Muir’s position is more problematic, he is already on the Ibrox banned list following the League Cup Final.

Nick Walsh will referee Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie against Hibs with Kevin Clancy on VAR.

On Tuesday Collum will announce the officials for the March 16 Glasgow Derby, the talent pool has never been shallower but that is entirely down to the SFA and their restrictive recruitment procedures.

When a world wide search for a new Head of Refereeing results in Collum being appointed there are clearly problems in the system- similar to Collum’s decision to create a full-time VAR gig for his mate Muir.

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Muir and Maeda discussion starts at 30 seconds