VAR looks to have shown its inconsistency by punishing Celtic defender Alexandro Bernabei for handball inside his own box this weekend.
While the Bhoys hosted Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, their game – which ended as a 4-2 win for the home side – was packed full of drama and excitement.
While injury-time goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada will steal the focus of most headlines, the penalty against Bernabei which led to Steven Fletcher’s 12th-minute spot kick is also worthy of discussion.
Indeed, VAR opted the intervene in the incident and so a penalty was ultimately given for the handball in a controversial fashion, despite the Celtic left-back knowing very little about it.
Was it a penalty?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts on the penalty and Celtic…
Footage of the incident shows that Bernabei was simply trying to head the ball away and when it came back in his direction at hit his arm, his arm wasn’t exactly in an unnatural position, nor had he moved it deliberately to try and block the Dundee United effort.
What’s more, Celtic were not awarded a penalty in a recent game against Heart of Midlothian despite opposition defender Michael Smith appearing to handle the ball in a pretty blatant manner – showing that VAR has been rather inconsistent with these two differing rulings.
Of course, the technology is still new to Scotland, having only been implemented just a matter of weeks ago, so it may take some time to get used to. But there really are no excuses when it comes to applying the same rules and standards in each game when it comes to handballs inside the box.