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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Robbie Copeland

Watch Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou burst into LAUGHTER over VAR 'improved the game' suggestion

Ange Postecoglou could only laugh when asked if VAR has improved the game in Scotland ahead of his side's clash with St Mirren on Wednesday evening.

The Celtic boss has been left exasperated with the technology and vented his fury after his side were denied a penalty against Rangers for handball on Connor Goldson. He and captain Callum McGregor both insisted Celtic have been on the wrong end of some harsh decisions from officials and VAR and it seems recent games have done little to change the boss' mind.

He's spoken about it a lot since the Goldson incident, and when asked in his most recent press conference if he feels VAR has improved the game, he burst into laughter and said: "You must have missed my last four press conferences. My view hasn't really changed, I've already made people aware of my concerns early on and I haven't really addressed it too much since.

"It's all on the record. We move on." You can watch the exchange around the 3.00 mark in the video above.

Speaking after that 2-2 draw with Rangers a furious Postecoglou said it wasn't just Celtic who had been harshly treated but said that's all the more reason to be concerned as it could end up costing a team their place in the division.

He said: “We have had a rough run of it. In the past, wherever I’ve coached you’d be hard-pressed to find me being too critical of any refereeing decision during my whole 25 years coaching.

“I’ve always felt that with human beings involved, errors will happen and things will even out over the course of the year. But if you look from the introduction of VAR, we’ve had some, I think, pretty rough decisions against us, and that’s not going to even itself out over one year: no chance are we going to get three [questionable] penalties in our favour.

“I think we have had some bad decisions in a short space of time. The biggest problem for me and my players at the moment is just confusion. You’ve got players who are trying to defend in the box not knowing what they can and can’t do. It seems to change on a weekly basis.

“I saw people doing mental gymnastics all week trying to figure out why it wasn’t a penalty. Maybe that’s because it was a penalty and there’s nothing to figure out.

“That’s where it’s frustrating for supporters, not just of our club. That could be a decision that sends a club down, relegates them. If someone watching our game, the Premiership, can clearly define to me with the decisions we’ve had so far what is a handball, without trying to justify decisions, I’d be very surprised. I think it’s a bit of a mess at the moment.”

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