VAR FROM OVER
SFA supremo breaks silence on Rangers v Celtic cup final penalty storm as he insists ‘decisions will be wrong’
New Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart has demanded answers from the SFA
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell insists that some 'decisions will be wrong' as he addressed the Premier Sports Cup Final VAR controversy.
Much of the fallout from Sunday's Old Firm clash has centred around the decision not to award Rangers a penalty kick in their defeat to Celtic.
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The match finished in an incredible 3-3 draw after extra time with the Hoops going on to taste trophy glory after a penalty shoot-out.
But Rangers were livid not to be awarded a penalty DURING the match itself.
Early in extra time, Liam Scales hauled down Vaclav Cerny with referee John Beaton giving a free-kick.
However, replays showed the offence continued to the 18-yard line with Gers star Cerny's foot ON the line.
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But VAR Alan Muir and assistant VAR Frank Connor failed to intervene and play resumed with the free-kick.
New Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart demanded answers over the controversy on Monday and we told you Rangers were set to be told a spot-kick should've been awarded.
Stewart said: “The manner in which we lost was hard to take.
“I have spoken with the SFA to ask for an explanation about the non-awarding of a penalty in extra-time.
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“So I will wait to hear what the SFA have to say about that.”
Neither Muir or Connor have been appointed to matches this coming weekend.
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Now, an SFA chief has publicly spoken for the first time since the major controversy.
Ian Maxwell has insisted mistakes are 'just part of human nature' and says that long as people are involved, mistakes will happen from time to time.
He also insisted that VAR has led to more decisions being made right, even if some will be incorrect.
Maxwell said: "We will be talking about refereeing decisions forevermore because we've talked about them since football started, that's just the nature of the game."
He was pressed on the Rangers situation being a 'factual' decision instead of a subjective one, and insisted that even in those instances, he expects mistakes to happen.
Maxwell continued: "Decisions will be wrong, that's a given.
"We will eradicate them as much as we possibly can, VAR has done that in the vast majority of cases.
"There are always going to be one or two that will fall out with that because there's people involved.
"Anything that involves a person at any point, in any walk of life there will be decisions made that don't go the way we want them to be or are incorrect.
"That's just part of human nature."
Confirming that there HAD been dialogue with Rangers, Maxwell revealed that the next instalment of refereeing chief Willie Collum's YouTube VAR review show is being filmed and will be released soon.
It's expected the controversial Hampden incident will be addressed both on that and in the SFA's key match incident review panel findings later this week.
Maxwell explained: “There’s been dialogue with Rangers.
“There’s dialogue with every club in the country on a Monday morning and as you can imagine, Willie Collum’s phone is fairly busy.
“It’s proper that we do that and there needs to be engagement.
"We’re fortunate that since Willie came in we’ve got the VAR review show that’s being filmed at the moment.
"We’ve got the Key Match Incident panel and they’ll announce their view later this week.
“I’m sure the VAR review show will have an interesting spike in viewer figures.
"That will give everyone an understanding of the review of recent incidents and I’m sure that will be one of them.”
Asked what he would say to people who have lost faith in VAR, Maxwell said: “It’s interesting that this is the first time I’ve been asked about VAR this season so there’s definitely been an improvement.
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“We’re being as transparent as we can do and more transparent than we’ve ever been in terms of the decisions being made and how they are made.
“That’s helped people understand the narrative. It’s not losing faith in VAR. There will be decisions across the season for every club that go for and against them. It will always be part of football and that will never change.”
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