Rangers told they got away with one in Premiership clash as VAR overlooks 'reckless' challenge in the box
Incident occurred when the Light Blues faced St Mirren last month
Rangers have been on the right end of a ‘wrong’ VAR decision according to the SFA’s Head of Refereeing, Willie Collum.
On September 9, in their 1-0 Premiership victory over St Mirren at Ibrox, defender Emmanuel Fernandez stood on the foot of Buddies winger Ismeal Kabia. The incident took place in the first half while the match was locked at 0-0. Despite appeals from the visitors, referee Don Robertson waved play on and VAR Steven McLean chose not to intervene. Rangers eventually won the match in the dying minutes through substitute striker Bojan Miovski.
Speaking on the VAR Review Show, which takes a look back at all the controversial incidents from the previous month, Collum expressed that he believed the officiating team got it wrong at Ibrox - and that a yellow card for Fernandez and penalty should’ve been awarded.
Why did VAR get it ‘wrong’ in Rangers vs St Mirren clash?
The former whistler explained: “It should have been a longer check without a doubt. For us this is a penalty kick, without question. There will be occasions where attackers in the penalty area will play the ball and then there will be inevitable light contact, softer contact. Here it is quite clear for us that this is a reckless contact.
“This would also fall into the category of reckless, and a yellow card would be expected here for that kind of stepping action onto the foot. It is simple to say that the decision is wrong and we would agree with that. We had a discussion with the Premiership managers only the day after this match and we agreed completely and showed the incident and they agreed they’d expect a penalty kick.”
Why would not all instances result in a penalty?
Despite his disagreement with Robertson and McLean’s decision, Collum was also keen to illustrate that not all incidents like the one at Ibrox last month will result in a penalty, as it depends on the amount of contact.
He continued: “What we have to work with is not only the VAR team about taking more time to check, focusing on the defenders actions in that scenario, we also have to work hard with our on-field referees because we really want these kind of decisions identified live on the pitch. I repeat again, there will sometimes be a smaller contact, but this is too heavy. This should have been a foul."