Exclusive: Collum, Atkinson to apologise to St Mirren for Celtic penalty incident
After being refused a spot kick in that game, the former PGMOL chief and former FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that Stephen Robinson’s team should be given an apology.
On Saturday (1 March), Brendan Rodgers’ team defeated St Mirren 5-2 on the road, marking yet another significant step towards the Scottish Premiership title.
Even though Celtic appears to have a comfortable lead, things might have turned out differently if a crucial decision had been made later in the game.
The hosts believed they should have been granted the opportunity to equalize from the penalty spot with less than five minutes of normal time left and the Scottish champions leading 3-2.
Roland Idowu was taken down by Alastiar Johnston’s sliding challenge after the ball was played to him inside the Celtic penalty area.
VAR did not step in to propose a review that might have resulted in a spot kick, and referee Mathew MacDermid did not award a penalty, even though replays indicated Johnston made little to no touch with the ball.
After surviving that penalty scare, Celtic added two late goals through Yang Hyun-Jun and Daizen Maeda to further accentuate the score.
St. Mirren has already publicly criticized VAR rulings that have favored them this season, so it is doubtful they will be pleased with this one either.
Willie Collum, Scotland’s head referee, was commended by Hackett earlier this week for his handling of Dundee United’s goal against Hibernian that was disallowed due to MacDermid’s role as the video assistant.
He has now implied that, in light of this most recent occurrence, Collum might need to take similar measures once more.
Regarding the choice to not give Celtic a penalty, the former referee told Football Insider:
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