Scottish FA apologise to Hibernian over VAR error in penalty claim

Hibs say they received an apology from the Scottish FA after VAR failed to trigger an on-field penalty review in their draw with Aberdeen.

A cross from Jonathan Obita struck the arm of Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin but match referee David Munro didn’t feel there was a handball and VAR David Dickinson agreed.

The Easter Road club made their unhappiness known and attended a meeting at Hampden on Monday where they were told that an error had been made and that Munro should have been asked to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.

A Hibernian statement read: “The club held meetings with the Scottish FA at Hampden earlier today (19 February) to challenge the decision.

“The governing body outlined that the Referee Department agreed that the incident should have been referred by VAR for On-Field Review, and therefore an error was made.

“This is not the first occasion where the club has received an apology for VAR errors, and the club will continue to work with the Scottish FA regarding officiating in the Scottish game.”

Last week the governing body published the findings of the VAR Independent Review panel, which said that it felt VAR had delivered 13 wrong decisions in the second quarter of the season, with red cards, penalty kicks and disallowed goals all wrongly called.

Scottish FA referee’s chief Crawford Allan told STV last week that while he understood the frustrations and opinions surrounding the use of the system, he felt it was improving the game.

“In terms of VAR adding value in terms of a team winning the league or getting relegated or doesn’t through accuracy of decision-making, Scottish football is a better place for VAR,” he said.

“We’ve increased the accuracy of key decision-making by 8% or 9%. So the value to clubs and supporters of knowing there’s less of a chance of a league being won or a team getting relegated through a bad refereeing decision or because of a perceived error.

“So VAR has improved that.

“But the other side of the coin is a global issue. VAR is relatively new to football. If you look at rugby last week they have had challenges with the use of TMO in rugby and that’s with the use of open audio and everything else that they have.

“VAR and the use of tv changes the sport but in terms of accuracy it has absolutely helped.”