Philippe Clement has demanded answers from the SFA over the failure of VAR to pick up a 'clear' penalty for Rangers in their 2-1 defeat to rivals Celtic.
Canadian full-back Alistair Johnston handled in the penalty area when tussling for the ball with Ibrox winger Abdallah Sima but Nick Walsh didn't see the incident with both players in front of him.
VAR Willie Collum halted play to look at the moment again but quickly suggested there was no issue with the initial call to play on.
This prompted widespread shock with all three Sky Sports panellists covering the game, Kris Boyd, James McFadden and Neil Lennon, saying there was a clear penalty kick missed.
Then in the second half, Sky informed viewers that an offside in the build-up to the incident was the reason it was not given as a penalty.
And the Belgian manager is adamant this was the VAR covering their tracks after an error.
He told the BBC: "I'm also really curious why this handball wasn't given because it's a really decisive moment in the game to come back to 1-1. I'm really curious about that. It's a clear handball so it's a penalty and I think everybody who sees that clear handball will say it's a penalty."
The BBC reporter suggests that VAR pictures showed an offside prior to the flashpoint.
Clement responded: "Yes, but after the game. In the second half. We never got this information in the first half so that was not in account at that moment. So it's strange we didn't get this information that there was an offside and that there was no clear signal that it was offside. It's not an offside situation given with the ball there in the position which he was offside. So it's an explanation afterwards to cover a decision that was wrong."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel