Former SPFL referees Des Roache and Steve Conroy have weighed in on the controversial decision to disallow Daizen Maeda’s goal in Celtic’s recent Scottish Premiership clash against Hibernian, following the release of VAR audio by the Scottish FA.
The audio, which was made public on Friday, shows the VAR and assistant VAR team reviewing multiple camera angles to assess whether Celtic’s Alistair Johnston had played the ball out of play before delivering the cross for Maeda to score.
The decision to disallow the goal at Easter Road was based on the possibility that the ball had gone out of bounds before Johnston’s delivery.
Under the current rules, a decision can only be overturned if there is “clear and obvious” evidence.
However, SFA head of referees Willie Collum, speaking on the latest edition of The VAR Review, stated that the goal should have stood, as there was not “100 per cent conclusive” evidence that the entire ball had crossed the line.
Read more:
- Referees chief: St Mirren denied penalty against Celtic
- Audio released from Daizen Maeda’s Hibernian v Celtic disallowed goal
Roache and Conroy, who both have extensive experience in Scottish refereeing, voiced their strong disapproval of the decision on their The Ref’s View X account.
They said: “Yeah, it’s as bad and damning as we thought, there is absolutely no way that goal should have been overturned.
"Alan Muir has made two calls in a VAR room this year regarding decisions on a line and guessed them. Willie doesn’t cover himself in glory either, a total mess.”
The comments from Roache and Conroy come after a series of controversial VAR decisions in Scottish football - all highlighted in this fresh update from Collum - with critics continuing to question the consistency and reliability of the technology in key match situations.
