Former referee Bobby Madden has delivered an insight into the VAR decision-making protocol behind Alistair Johnston's handball call during Celtic vs Rangers yesterday.
Ibrox boss Philippe Clement was insensed at full-time as he called into question the officiating after the Canadian full-back appeared to clearly handle the ball out of play with Abdallah Sima set to pounce in the box.
Referee Nick Walsh did not deem the incident a handball and VAR official Willie Collum decided not to intervene either despite reviewing the incident.
It was later revealed that Sima was offside in the build-up to the incident in question, and ex-SFA whistler Madden believes his former colleagues came to the right conclusion in the end.
On Instagram, Madden posted: "Another Old Firm game and another big call. With the usual misinformation and poor reporting.
"This in my opinion this is a clear punishable handball offence. Not easy for the referee to detect and VAR will, as ever, review all penalty area decisions.
"If the penalty was awarded on field it would have been disallowed when the VAR checked the APP (Attacking Phase Possession).
"As it wasn’t awarded VAR would have checked it. If VAR believed it was a penalty he would also check the APP and then identify the offside.
"To avoid any miscommunication the referee would be called for an on field review to decide if he thought penalty.
"If the referee thought it was a penalty they would show the offside and that’s how play would be restarted.
"If the referee didn’t think penalty then it would be started as when the game was stopped.
"This is a bit of a cumbersome process but it is designed to ensure people can understand the decision making process.
"So basically, VAR did not think that it was a penalty. Releasing an image of an offside however many minutes later was only to show that a penalty would have been a wrong decision and support the non intervention.
"In the end the correct decision was reached.
"Ps If there had been no offside in the APP, and the penalty was awarded, it is absolutely not a caution-able offence for handball for those also saying it would be a second yellow card."
