NafisaUsually, encounters between Celtic and Rangers are intense and produce numerous post-match discussion points.
Officiating decisions are frequently at the heart of that, but it wasn’t the situation after Celtic secured a 1-1 draw with Rangers last Sunday at Ibrox.
Disputes were largely limited, with only the guard of honour debate, the Rangers tifo presentation and the Ibrox side’s supporter conduct dominating attention before and after the match.
There was, however, a penalty moment that appeared to frustrate Rangers fans because ultimately, they were not awarded it. And it featured Ianis Hagi and Celtic captain Callum McGregor.
KMI panel side with penalty decision in Rangers vs Celtic clash:
McGregor slid in to win the ball from Hagi inside the box and the Romanian fell under pressure from the Celtic midfielder.
It was obvious at the time no infringement occurred as match referee Nick Walsh rightly allowed play to continue. VAR reviewed it briefly but determined no action was necessary.
And those decisions from Walsh and the VAR have now been fully endorsed by the SFA’s KMI panel.
They ruled 5:0 in favour of no penalty, with the summary simply stating: “The on-field decision was unanimously supported.”
Two more Old Firm incidents analysed by KMI panel:
These two calls barely need examining because in the end, they were factually accurate judgments during the contest.
But they appear in the KMI panel’s official outcomes document and concern Nicolas Raskin’s disallowed goal and Adam Idah’s Celtic leveller.
Raskin believed he had put Rangers in front early on with the linesman missing that he was in an offside position.
It was reviewed by VAR and they correctly determined the Belgian was offside. That assessment has been confirmed by the KMI panel, who noted: “The panel unanimously agreed that the on-field onside decision was incorrect. The panel highlighted VAR was correct to intervene and disallow the goal for offside.”
For Idah’s goal, the assistant referee flagged Daizen Maeda for offside in the build-up. This was mistaken and VAR overturned the decision to allow the goal.
Once more, the KMI panel fully agreed, stating: “The panel unanimously agreed that the on-field offside decision was incorrect. The panel highlighted VAR was correct to intervene and award the goal.”
Nafisa
