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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Aidan Smith

Rangers boss Michael Beale fires Celtic VAR pressure warning in 'be careful' message

Michael Beale insists both Rangers and Celtic need to "be careful" with their approach to VAR following its controversial introduction to Scottish football.

The video software has split opinion since it arrived in the Premiership and managers across the league have been vocal about the running of the technology.

Beale can understand the frustrations but he feels both himself and his Celtic counterpart Ange Postecoglou have a duty to support VAR and the officials.

Speaking to BBC Sportsound, he said: "The big one for me is that they don't want to undermine the referee on the pitch.

"They are never undermining him. They are helping him. They need to get rid of that idea that making a referee look at the monitor is not undermining him.

"Was it a blatant error? Whether it was a blatant error or not, was it an error is the answer now whether it was a blatant one.

"The VAR officials, the fourth officials and assistants are a team of officials to help that game have the least controversy as possible.

"I have to say since I have come back into the league I have been pleased with the officiating and maybe that is because there has been no real drama come my way yet.

"As a manager I try to remove myself from the debate with the other bench because I don't think it helps me with my focus. 

"I try to remove myself as much as I can from driving the referee crazy, because I don't think putting him under pressure is going to be helpful.

"We have VAR now, we all wanted it. Now it is here to stay. I think some explanation behind the rules and decisions would help with people accepting them.

"The fans play a big a thing here and clubs. We have to be careful, especially the bigger clubs, that we don't ruin what we wanted."

Celtic boss Postecoglou hasn't been impressed with the length of time decisions are taking and he also went public with his concerns after a number of controversial calls were made early into VAR's introduction.

After the last derby fixture against Rangers, he said: "It's one of those things, and I don't think it's just confined to us as a club. I think there are other clubs in the same boat where it's just really confusing now for players in the box to know what they can or can't do, because it seems it changes depending on who is in charge of the decision-making process. There has been zero consistency in the decisions being made.

"My view on this and in 25 years of coaching and managing, I have always abided by the referees decision. You will be hard pressed to find me criticising any referee in my whole tenure as a manager, but I have always believed these things even themselves out because we make mistakes, players mistakes and referees make mistakes. Over a course of a season these things usually even themselves out."

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