Former referee Stuart Dougal has defended Craig Napier and VAR for the decision to send off Hibernian midfielder James Jeggo at the weekend.
The Austrian was given his marching orders shortly after half-time for a challenge on St Johnstone winger Connor McLennan.
Napier was sharp with his card and VAR did not see a clear and obvious error with his decision-making.
The red card has since received plenty of discussion with Hibs boss Lee Johnson going vocal on the 'broken' system as he called for change.
Dougal though, feels that Napier and the VAR team got the decision spot on. He told the BBC's Vardict programme: “Well, if we look at the protocols for VAR as we keep doing, has VAR seen a clear and obvious error?
“Now within the laws of the game I don't believe that he has seen a clear and obvious error, and we'll touch on that shortly.
“VAR will have seen the referee making, as we have, a very swift red card decision and people were criticising the referee for brandishing the red card very quickly, that's good refereeing.
“He had a great angle. He was out quickly with the card, saves the St Johnstone players trying to, or possibly remonstrating with the Hibs players.
“So from a refereeing perspective, I thought the referee handled that situation very well. VAR can't get involved unless he thinks it's a clear and obvious error.
“How do we know if it's a clear and obvious error? Well, let's look at the laws of the game. The laws of the game are pretty explicit when it tells referees and not just Scottish referees, this is the International Football Board that tells referees what's going on.
“So if a tackle or a challenge endangers the safety of an opponents, so if you're going in studs up right away, you run the risk. If you make connection, you’re endangering the safety of an opponent.
“Is there excessive force? Well, any player who lunges at an opponent. Jeggo was definitely lunging towards an opponent there, studs showing. VAR can't get involved there, so there's been a lot of criticism of VAR in that game and I think it's misplaced criticism.”
“Because the laws are there and the protocols there. You can criticise the referee's decision, but when we'll go to the laws of the game, that's how you judge your referees decision, not just what you think you should as a player, an ex-player, a pundit or a manager, and I think we've got to be careful that we don't just jump to conclusions without looking at the laws of the game.”
Michael Stewart has since waded in on Dougal's comments on social media. He added: "This is stuff from a parallel universe. Very concerning that there’s a doubling down on poor decisions.
“Here is a massive problem in Scottish football right here. Embarrassing stuff.
“This description would make you think Jeggo is endangering McLennan’s life. It’s so far fetched and inaccurate it’s a major problem.
“The wee condescending comment at the end is quite revealing too. It’s as if everyone else doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
