IMAGINE this scenario, if you will, dear reader.
A member of the public enters a police station and walks to the sergeant’s desk.
“I wish to make a complaint,” says the visitor.
“What nature of complaint, sir?” asks the cop.
“I have just been assaulted.”
“Would you care to give me details, sir?”
“I thrust my chin at the fist of a passer-by and then had to roll around the pavement for about five minutes.”
“My goodness, sir. You thrust your chin at the fist of a passer-by and were then left rolling around the pavement? That’s a serious complaint.”
“Yes, I thought so, too, officer. What are you going to do about this dastardly deed?”
“Well, of course, a complaint of this nature requires an immediate response. I will put out an all points broadcast and make sure the offender is apprehended as swiftly as possible and is suitably punished.”
Preposterous, isn’t it?
And yet VAR official Steven McLean watched football’s version of this nonsense at Tynecastle on Saturday and saw fit to order referee Matthew MacDermid to review an incident between Hearts’ Landry Kabore and Motherwell’s on-loan Celtic defender Stephen Welsh.
FLASHPOINT…Stephen Welsh attempts to clear while the grounded Landry Kabore tries to head the ball.
It was the 88th minute with the scoreline level at 1-1 and the hosts were pushing for the winner. The ball was in the box as bodies piled forward. There was the usual frantic melee as the visitors’ defence attempted to clear its lines.
Kabore was lying flat on the ground and tried to get his head to the ball as Welsh motioned to kick it clear. There may have been minimal contact, but certainly not enough to see the home player spin around in an apparent paroxysm of agony, holding his head and looking for all the world as though he was about to breathe his last.
MacDermid didn’t buy it, but McLean, in front of the screens, had an altogether different viewpoint. He could only have deemed it as dangerous play.
You have to ask: From whom?
The rule book is fairly unequivocal on this directive: “Playing in a dangerous manner is any action that, while trying to play the ball, threatens injury to someone (including the player themself).”
DECKED…Landry Kabore lies on the ground while skipper Lawrence Shankland makes a plea for a penalty-kick to referee Matthew MacDermid.
Surely, Kabore, who has previous for dying swan acts, endangered himself by attempting to head the ball while in a prone position on the deck?
What was Walsh expected to do? Like any defender worth his salt, he wanted to get the ball to safety.
That was good enough for the match official with an excellent view of the incident, but the VAR official believed that decision had been “a clear and obvious error”.
That really is a mesmerising judgement, even by VAR’s plummeting standards. Bewildering doesn’t even come close.
A penalty-kick was awarded, Lawrence Shankland accepted the gift and stuck the ball low into a corner and the Edinburgh club made certain of three precious points with a third goal in stoppage time.
The goalscorer? None other than Kabore who had miraculously recovered from his near decapitation of a few minutes earlier.
Celtic fans will remember the name. It was the 74th minute of the January encounter and the champions were winning 2-1 and in control. Kabore again enthusiastically embraced the Tynecastle turf following a tussle with Auston Trusty.
McLean, the VAR official on Saturday, had been entrusted with the silver whistle on this occasion and booked the Hoops defender. That was not sufficient punishment reckoned our old friend John Beaton at VAR controls.
SCREEN TEST…Matthew MacDermid reviews the incident and a penalty-kick is on way.
Another onfield screen check was ordered, the referee had the merest of glances, rescinded the yellow card and flashed the red to banish Trusty. Hearts took advantage of the extra man and equalised in the 87th minute.
“It wasn’t a red card,” observed Martin O’Neill afterwards. There were few dissenters among those blessed with more than a single digit IQ.
FIFA recently announced their list of 170 match officials for the World Cup Finals in the summer. There is no place in that massive group for a solitary Scottish referee.
It was an identical story at the global extravaganza in Qatar in 2022.
Are you surprised? No, me neither.
ALEX GORDON
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