CELTIC were denied a stonewall penalty-kick in the champions’ 3-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park last weekend.
That’s the majority verdict of a five-man SFA panel following a review of the incident when Daizen Maeda was flattened in the box by defender Stephen O’Donnell in the 33rd minute with the visitors winning 1-0.
A pass from Alistair Johnston was turned into the net by the hand of the tumbling Japanese forward.
Clearly, it was not a valid goal and the moment was looked again by VAR official Alan Muir who told us what we already knew that the effort would not stand.
FLATTENED…Daizen Maeda is sent sprawling by Motherwell defender Stephen O’Donnell, but Celtic are wrongly denied a penalty-kick by the referee and his VAR assistant.
However, onfield referee David Dickinson and his technical assistant completely missed the earlier offence as the hosts’ right-back sent Maeda sprawling with an off-the-ball challenge.
CQN‘s match analyst stated immediately that it had been a blatant penalty-kick in his report, but, astonishingly, it was overlooked by both officials and Well escaped punishment.
However, the Key Match Incident Review Panel, which meets each week to examine major incidents from the previous weekend’s matches before voting on whether the onfield decision and any subsequent VAR interventions were correct, found that Celtic should have been awarded a spot-kick.
They spotted the push by O’Donnell on Maeda which was missed by Dickinson and Muir.
NO LUCK…Daizen Maeda slides in, but is thwarted by Motherwell keeper Aston Oxborough.
The report read: “After a lengthy discussion on the incident, the majority (4:1) of the panel deemed this should have firstly been identified as a foul by the on-field Referee and an on-field review should have been recommended by the VAR when the penalty was not awarded.
“As the goal was correctly ruled out for handball, the majority of the panel (4:1) felt the penalty-kick should have been awarded as this offence occurred before the handball. One panel member felt the decision not to award the penalty-kick was correct and that no intervention was required.
“The panel also noted that, in line with VAR protocol, VAR could not advise on any sanction for the offending player during a potential OFR, which must be decided by the On-field referee.”
*DON’T miss the unbeatable match report and best in action images from Celtic v Aberdeen this evening – only in your champion CQN.
