Scottish FA admit one camera missed Celtic goal but say Jota offside call was correct

The Scottish FA has issued clarification over Celtic’s controversial offside goal against Motherwell and says the right decision was reached at Fir Park.

Winger Jota thought he had scored after latching on to a pass from Kyogo Furuhashi and dinking the ball over Motherwell keeper Liam Kelly and into the net.

A VAR review found the player to be offside and disallowed the goal but the broadcast image used to illustrate the decision came from the opposite side of the pitch and was far from conclusive.

That sparked controversy and questions about the new technology, which uses a minimum of six cameras to allow the video assistant referees to get a clear view of important incidents.

Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows then revealed on social media that there were working cameras on both 18-yard lines.

The Scottish FA has now confirmed that one of those cameras, which also serves a broadcast purpose as well as VAR, failed to capture the important moment.

However, the governing body is adamant that the technology was still able to reach the correct decision and that the goal should not have stood.

An SFA statement on Friday read: “Referee Operations can confirm that during a VAR review at Motherwell v Celtic, the footage from the relevant 18-yard line camera did not capture an appropriate view of the incident.

“While the broadcast footage was only able to show a wider camera angle for viewers, Hawk-Eye technology is designed to calibrate an accurate offside decision from either of the two 18-yard line camera positions, with the subsequent VAR review determining that the Celtic player had received the ball in an offside position.

“We have provided feedback to the host broadcaster on the incident as part of our regular review of the system operation.”