Scottish FA’s Association’s Panel have confirmed the Hoops SHOULD NOT HAVE Won the League and Derek McInnes was RIGHT all along after Huge Announcement coming out of Hampden

Celtic should not have been awarded a stoppage-time penalty last week against Motherwell in the Premiership, according to the Scottish Football Association’s Key Match Incident panel.

The independent KMI group has ruled that referee John Beaton was incorrect to penalise Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson following a VAR review for a handball offence in the 99th minute of the match against Celtic at Fir Park on Wednesday, May 13.

Kelechi Iheanacho stepped up to score the penalty and secure a 3-2 win for Celtic, which kept the gap between them and then league leaders Hearts to a single point heading into the two sides’ title decider three days later.

Had the game finished as a draw, Celtic would have needed to beat Hearts by three goals to be crowned champions, but because of the win over Motherwell, they only needed a victory at Parkhead to overtake the Jambos – which they ultimately achieved with a 3-1 result.

The decision to award Celtic a penalty drew worldwide criticism and while head of referees Willie Collum was reported to have supported officials over the call, the KMI panel has now concluded that a penalty should not have been given, while also stating the incident was an extremely difficult one for referees to assess.

It is a ruling that is likely to further anger Hearts, whose head coach Derek McInnes described the award as “disgusting” after reviewing the incident at Tynecastle following his side’s 3-0 win over Falkirk.

The reaction to the penalty decision was intense and widespread, with former England striker Gary Lineker saying it “might be the worst VAR decision I’ve seen”. Beaton was later placed under police protection after his personal details were leaked online last week.

The majority of the panel agreed that VAR official Andrew Dallas should not have intervened and that the final penalty award was incorrect.

The KMI verdict stated: “The majority (2:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision of play on to be correct. Two panel members felt VAR was incorrect to intervene and the penalty was incorrectly awarded for handball after OFR (on-field review).

“One panel member felt that VAR was correct to intervene and a penalty should have been awarded.”

The incident was graded at difficulty level five, with the panel noting: “A particularly tough decision that all referees would struggle with. The type of judgement where technology is needed to support officials.”