Lewis Mayo was controversially penalised for handball in the final moments of the Rugby Park clash
SFA Head of Refereeing Operations Willie Collum
SFA head of refereeing operations Willie Collum has revealed that the governing body have “recalibrated” their rule book after Celtic‘s late penalty winner against Kilmarnock.
Stuart Kettlewell fumed following the full-time whistle at Rugby Park after the ball struck Lewis Mayo’s arm after deflecting off team-mate Robbie Deas at close range.
Referee John Beaton had initially waved for play with the Premiership clash poised at 1-1 in the final moments of the clash.
However, VAR official Matthew MacDermid would send the man in the middle to the monitor and a spot-kick was awarded – allowing Kelechi Iheanacho to net the decisive goal from 12 yards last month.
Match official audio broadcasted on the Scottish Football VAR review shows MacDermid telling AVAR Ross Hardie: “It (the ball) does come off the Kilmarnock player, off the defender.
“But the hand is there from the body. Outstretched from the body and it’s up at shoulder height.”
He then adds to Beaton: “So John, when you come, you will see that it comes off the Kilmarnock captain, onto the arm, but the arm is up at shoulder height and away from the body.”
Lewis Mayo of Kilmarnock handles the ball(Image: Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock)
Referees’ chief Collum insists the match officials did get the call right to the letter of the law.: “It’s a really debatable one.
“Firstly, the referee we can understand his position on the field – it’s very difficult to gauge this, especially when it’s so close and you take into account the deflection as well.
“The big thing for the VAR here is the arm being up. For us, Lewis Mayo here – the arm is definitely up. It’s unnatural. It’s an expected ball but that changes after it deflects from Robbie Deas onto the arm.
“If the shot goes direct here and hits Lewis Mayo and there is no deflection, it is 100 per cent a penalty kick. Even in this situation with the deflection, in law, you can justify this penalty because of the body shape, because of the arm.
“The law doesn’t talk about deflection or close proximity – these are guidance that are issued rather than the law that just talks about an unnatural position. As a player, you then run the risk of being penalised.”
However, following consultation with the Key Match Incident Panel – who deemed Beaton’s call to be correct, but that the team in Clydesdale House had got it wrong – and the club that a similar incident will not be awarded again.
Collum went on: “I have said from day one – it’s about stakeholders views. Really, pretty much, nobody accepted this as a penalty.
“We have had good discussions with our stakeholders, in terms of the KMI panel. We have had good discussions with the clubs as well, and also players, and the feeling is this should not be punished going forward.
“We want to recalibrate in terms of this decision, in terms of if it’s at such close proximity and it’s deflected – even if the arm is in this position – we don’t punish it.
“But there is a slight caveat to that, two words – impact, consequence. You know, if we put this on the goal line – this same scenario – and the ball is going into the net then it changes everything altogether.
“We are asking our referees and ours VARs to judge what is the impact and consequence of the action.
“Moving forward, if this exact same decision happened again we do not want to award a penalty kick.”