Scottish FA tell Rangers officials got critical cup final penalty call wrong

Scottish FA head of referee operations Willie Collum has told Rangers they should have been awarded a crucial penalty kick in their Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic, STV has learned.

Rangers suffered a painful penalty shoot-out against their Glasgow rivals after the teams had drawn 3-3 over 120 minutes but the Ibrox club believed they should have had a chance to take the lead in extra time after a controversial refereeing call.

Celtic defender Liam Scales tugged on the Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny’s jersey at the edge of the area as the Ibrox side pushed for a goal in the first-half of extra-time at Hampden. Match referee John Beaton showed Scales a yellow card and awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box, with James Tavernier shooting over the bar from the set piece.

VAR officials Alan Muir and Frank Connor did not indicate that Beaton had made a mistake and that a penalty should have been awarded but television pictures showed that the foul appeared to have continued into the penalty area, with Cerny’s foot on the line.

Rangers complained to the governing body, with new Ibrox chief executive Patrick Stewart making the club’s feelings known to Scottish FA counterpart Ian Maxwell.

STV has learned that head of referee operation Willie Collum has now told the club that a mistake was made by the VAR team.

Muir and Connor do not appear to have been appointed to any games this weekend, though it’s unclear when the refereeing schedule was put together. John Beaton will be back in action as he takes charge of Hearts v St Johnstone on Sunday.

Speaking at a grassroots football event on Wednesday, Scottish FA chief executive Maxwell wouldn’t give his view on the specific incident but did talk about the communication the referee department has with clubs.

He said: “There’s been dialogue with Rangers.

“There’s dialogue with every club in the country on a Monday morning and as you can imagine, Willie Collum’s phone is fairly busy.

“It’s proper that we do that and there needs to be engagement. We’re fortunate that since Willie came in we’ve got the VAR review show that’s being filmed at the moment, we’ve got the Key Match Incident panel and they’ll announce their view later this week.

“I’m sure the VAR review show will have an interesting spike in viewer figures. That will give everyone an understanding of the review of recent incidents and I’m sure that will be one of them.”

Asked what he would say to people who have lost faith in VAR, Maxwell said: “It’s interesting that this is the first time I’ve been asked about VAR this season so there’s definitely been an improvement.

“We’re being as transparent as we can do and more transparent than we’ve ever been in terms of the decisions being made and how they are made.

“That’s helped people understand the narrative. It’s not losing faith in VAR. There will be decisions across the season for every club that go for and against them. It will always be part of football and that will never change.”

Following the final whistle at the cup final. Rangers manager Philippe Clement vented his frustration at the decision that could have changed the outcome at Hampden.

“I know all of [the media] like to dive deep into things so maybe it’s an important moment to dig into that,” he said. “About why there’s no communication in the moment about a big decision like that because it’s clear for everybody that its a game-deciding decision.

“I have had hundreds of messages about that.

“Of course [Beaton] cannot see that in the moment but he didn’t get the communication from the VAR to come to watch the screen.

“It was for me a really weird situation, that there’s no look in this kind of game.”