Michael Nicholson has wakened up to hit out at serious issues with VAR.
Welcome to the party Mr CEO. Mr £17,000 a week for who knows what.
Two in house club interviews in four years and afraid to meet up with the Collective. Leaving the excuses and deflection to a 77-year-old interim Chairman.
After losing an appeal against Auston Trusty’s red card against Hibs Celtic dug out their statement template with an added twist.
Normally they express their surprise and disappointment at a decision followed by lip service.
Often they’ll mention about working with stakeholders to improve standards while sitting back waiting for the next batch of honest mistakes.
Yesterday’s Celtic statement had a twist in the tail, announcing:
this and other decisions in the match and in other recent games demonstrate a serious issue with VAR and its current deployment which needs urgently reviewed.
Since no name has been put on the statement we have to assume that it came from Nicholson or at least passed his desk before publication.
Other recent games?
Really?
NICHOLSON- SERIOUS VAR ISSUES AT RECENT MATCHES
Pity that we never heard about these issues as rookie referees take liberties knowing that anything goes in Celtic matches.
It finally caught up with Celtic against Hibs. They lost.
Was it Ryan Lee’s decisions in the Scottish Cup tie against Dundee? When Tomas Cvancara was pushed inside the penalty box with a free kick awarded outside. Or the head high boot in the face to Kieran Tierney that resulted in a booking?
Were the Brad Lyons handball incidents at Kilmarnock ignored by Duncan Nicolson in mind when Celtic mentioned ‘recent games demonstrate a serious issues with VAR’.
Fans don’t know the answers to those questions.
Since July 2012 Celtic have ran a mile from calling out any issues at the SFA. That is why John Beaton and Steven McLean are in charge at Ibrox on Sunday. The next generation is represented by David Dickinson. All backed by honest Willie Collum.
Celtic statement talks about var re-refereeing games. If they had a backbone they’d say they are not paying >£300k next season for var or anytime soon until assurances can be given.
But they won’t.
They only show grit and resolve when it comes to talking out against the fans https://t.co/Tc1sMbGSuo— Celtic IG (@CelticIg) February 24, 2026
Clearly the Trusty appeal and the reaction statement was to fake a concern to supporters.
No mention was made of the penalty that Celtic were denied against Hibs when Liam Scales had his shirt pulled moving for a corner.
As bad as that decision was from Matthew MacDermid was the VAR excuse from Grant Irvine.
In the spirit of transparency the scoreboards at Celtic Park relayed the message of DECION NO PENALTY- INCIDENT OUTSIDE THE PENALTY AREA.
SFA TROLL CELTIC FANS
Every Hibs player was inside the penalty area. The SFA haven’t apologised for that mistake being relayed to Celtic fans. Nicholson daren’t call out or question that message and the weekly handicap that Celtic faces.
At his pre recorded interview for the 2025 AGM Nicholson spoke about improving communication with supporters.
Last month a new dull as dishwater App was introduced. Nicholson has yet to use it to communicate with the anti-establishment fans.
At the 2023 AGM the Celtic CEO was questioned about the actions of Beaton during a recent match against St Mirren.
‘Penalty to Rangers’ was the reply of madcap Nicholson as he looked along the podium at the shared laughter. Big Peter burst a button at the belly laugh. The joke is on the Celtic players, management and fans on a weekly basis.
A very similar incident to the Trusty red card happened in the January 3 Glasgow Derby. It was handled very differently by referee McLean with no VAR intervention.
Any Celtic fan accepting the Trusty red card needs their heads looked at. This isn’t a red card and the referee deals with it. This is all that needed to happen on Sunday. It’s part of the game pic.twitter.com/xb8PYrcNwz
— Rob Jones (@robjonescfc) February 24, 2026
Why was the penalty denial not challenged? not that anything can be done now, the game is done and dusted. Or how about the hand picked officials on Sunday? At least it would have let them know that we see it all, the whole grubby lot of it.
— Kat🍀CELTIC FC 🦊🦌🐕🐎🐈🐘🦁 ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS (@LiveLoveCeltic) February 24, 2026
did u ask wtf this was about? pic.twitter.com/CH0DnPDkHV
— JulianAraujoCsc 🍀 (@Smc___1888) February 24, 2026
The only thing what needs urgent reviewed is MN position 🍀
— celtic Jaime 🍀 (@celtic_jaime) February 24, 2026
Another weak token statement from the club.
Nothing further will be done upon the response from the SFA
— Cadsy (@thecaddies7) February 24, 2026
What needs urgently reviewed is how Nicholson and co are still in a job. Sack the board pic.twitter.com/1IdyXtkwyU
— Aidan_CFC (@AidanCFC_) February 24, 2026
