Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Celtic appeal against red card as they raise VAR concerns with SFA
CELTIC have appealed against Yang Hyun-jun’s red card and written to the Scottish Football Association with “serious concerns” over the standard of officiating during their 2-0 defeat by Hearts.
Yang was sent off following a VAR review after initially being booked for catching Alex Cochrane with a high boot.
Both sides had penalties awarded during the cinch Premiership encounter at Tynecastle on Sunday.
Celtic confirmed they would be appealing against the red card and added in a statement: “We have also written to the SFA to raise our serious concerns regarding the use of VAR and the decisions made within the match.
“As we have said before, for some time Celtic has sought to work with the footballing authorities with the aim of improving standards associated with refereeing and the use of VAR in Scotland.”
Kilmarnock have also appealed against the red card shown to Lewis Mayo for bringing down Dundee forward Scott Tiffoney.
Both appeals will be heard today by a fasttrack tribunal convened by the SFA. Despite a dramatic weekend in the Premiership when both Rangers and Celtic lost, match officials and VAR were the major talking point.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was one of several managers to vent his frustration towards match officials, whose representative body responded yesterday in response to criticism it feels is becoming “much more frequent, disproportionate, and personalised”.
Rodgers accused referee Don Robertson and video assistant John Beaton in particular of “really poor officiating”.
Rodgers felt Tomoki Iwata was harshly penalised for handball in the box following a VAR review, while Hearts did not feel they should have conceded an early penalty, which Adam Idah missed, after Yang went down following a collision with Cochrane.
Rodgers claimed Beaton’s VAR intervention on the red card was “incredible” and claimed the penalty decision was “worse”.
He added: “When I see that level of incompetence, then that makes me worry for the game.”
The Celtic manager could find himself facing SFA disciplinary action as rules forbid criticism of match officials in such a way as to “indicate bias or incompetence”.
Rangers boss Philippe Clement also claimed Ross McCausland had been “kicked off the pitch” by Motherwell matchwinner Dan Casey, who went unpunished for his challenge, while Aberdeen boss Neil Warnock labelled VAR a “disgrace” after his side conceded a late penalty against St Mirren.
Killie boss Derek McInnes could not understand why referee Colin Steven was not sent to the monitor to review Mayo’s red card.
Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon and ex-Rangers boss Graeme Souness were both scathing in their criticism of Scotland’s match officials at a Viaplay media event on Monday.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with VAR, it’s the people that make the decisions,” said Lennon. Souness added: “The referees are just not very good. VAR compounds the problem and shows them up.”