SFA tell Rangers 'we got it wrong' as Hampden chief breaks silence on penalty storm

Ian Maxwell has responded to the fury from Ibrox over the penalty they didn't get

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has responded to Rangers' fury over the non-award of a penalty at Hampden - admitting some "decisions will be wrong" due to human nature.

The governing body have heard from new Ibrox CEO Patrick Stewart who got straight down to business in his first day on Monday by contacting them to demand clarity over why they weren't awarded a spot-kick late in normal time. Vaclav Cerny went down in the box after an apparent pull by Liam Scales but ref John Beaton only gave a free-kick and the VAR team of Alan Muir and Frank Connor elected not to call him over to the monitor.

But Record Sport exclusively revealed yesterday that the under-fire VAR team have paid the price and been axed from this weekend's matches. And reports overnight suggested the SFA have internally accepted a mistake was made - something they're reportedly set to admit after Thursday's VAR review.

Speaking today, SFA chief executive Maxwell was asked about it directly. And he said: "Decisions will be wrong, that's a given. We'll eradicate them as much as we possibly can. We've done that in the vast majority of cases, but there are always going to be one or two that will fall outwith that, because there's people involved.

"Anything that involves a person in any walk of life, there will be decisions made that don't go the way we want them to, or are incorrect. That's just part of human nature.

"It's absolute nonsense to insinuate any sort of bias or anything like that at any level of Scottish football. Referees make decisions on of what they think is right at the time and even entertaining it nonsense.

"This is the first time this year I've been asked about a VAR decision. It's not always been that way but I think Willie coming in, the transparency and the way he's dealt with things, he's been a breath of fresh air and made a real difference on and off the pitch. We want to drive that forward.

"Since football began, people have been talking about refereeing decisions and we will talk about them forever more. That's part of the game."