During Celtic’s 5-2 Premier Sports Cup victory over Falkirk, the on-field decision to display a late red card to Bairns player Michael McKenna for a high tackle on Anthony Ralston was considered valid by all five panellists.
The report continued: “The panel unanimously deemed the on-field decision correct, noting that the Falkirk player made contact with the Celtic player above the knee while leading with his studs.”
A decision has been made on 17 important match occurrences.
A newly constituted Scottish FA panel decided that no VAR errors occurred last weekend, however there was disagreement over a penalty judgement in the Rangers-Dundee encounter at Ibrox.
The Key Match Incident Review Panel will convene once a week to review important incidents from the previous weekend’s matches before deciding on whether the on-field judgement and any subsequent VAR interventions were correct.
Each panellist, who works in Scottish football or the media, votes once on each KMI, with the outcome determined by a majority decision.
The KPI panel examined 17 occurrences from two William Hill Premiership matches and two Premier Sports Cup quarter-final matchups that used VAR over the weekend of September 20 and 21.
They discovered that no wrong decisions were made, including the decision to give Rangers a 48th-minute penalty in their 3-0 win against Dundee in the Premier Sports Cup quarterfinal.
The panel unanimously concluded that referee Chris Graham was correct to penalise Dundee midfielder Mohamed Sylla for a foul on forward Cyriel Dessers, with James Tavernier converting the penalty. This was despite Dundee manager Tony Docherty later saying that the ruling was “soft”.
The report continued: “The panel supported the on-field decision, noting that the Dundee defender was caught on the wrong side and subsequently fouled the Rangers attacker.”
However, a decision not to award Rangers a penalty for another incident involving Sylla and Dessers during the first half sparked a disagreement on the panel. Sylla looked to grapple Dessers, who dropped to the ground in the box, and a post on the X account for officiating podcast Behind the Whistles labelled the on-field judgement a “clear error” and questioned why VAR did not interfere.
A 3:2 majority agreed that the on-field call was wrong and that a penalty should have been given. However, a 3:2 majority ruled that VAR was proper not to interfere because the judgement was not a clear and apparent error and fell within the category of “a more complex decision with a greater degree of subjectivity”.
The KMI report stated: “The panel debated this decision at long, with the majority (3:2) ruling the onfield decision erroneous, noting that the Dundee defender fouled the Rangers attacker. Two panellists believed that the contact was insufficient to earn a penalty. The majority (3:2) agreed that the VAR was correct not to intervene, while two panellists considered a penalty should have been awarded following a VAR intervention.
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