Chris Sutton and John Hartson weren’t exactly impressed by some of the decisions made by the VAR team today in Celtic’s victory over Hearts.
Led by gaffer, Ange Postecoglou, Celtic went on to defeat Hearts 4-3 at Tynecastle earlier today. Securing all three points extends Celtic’s lead at the top of the table, so may prove to be critical in the long run. However, some extremely questionable decisions made by VAR ruffled a few of Sutton and Hartson’s feathers as they seemed somewhat controversial.
Most clear of which was during the first half, where Michael Smith clearly handled in the box but Nick Walsh refused to point to the penalty spot. Even after consulting with VAR, the penalty was still not given even though there was clearly hand-to-ball contact.
In extreme contrast, Walsh awarded Hearts with two penalties during the match, something that Hartson picked up on and discussed with SkySports. Hartson said…
“You find ways of winning games. You can’t always be at your scintillating best to win a game and they’ve had to dig in today against a real, strong Hearts team. Hearts are very difficult to beat here at Tynecastle, notoriously it’s a really tough place to come. I think Ange isn’t in favour of VAR, but it’s here to stay.
“I feel he probably had to beat two teams today. He had to beat Hearts and he had to beat the VAR team because a couple of VAR decisions went against Celtic. You can clearly see his frustration.”
Furthermore, Chris Sutton took to Twitter to voice his feelings about some of the decisions made earlier today. The Celtic legend joked that Celtic defeated two opponents in today’s clash (Hearts and VAR).
Celtic beat Hearts and VAR today…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) October 22, 2022
Var of Midlothian 3-4 Celtic
— Liam Kelly (@cfcliamk96) October 22, 2022
New VAR, Same old officials.. still not enough to stop the Rip Roaring, Free Scoring, Never Boring, Glasgow Celtic 🍀💚✊ pic.twitter.com/C2tAn1ZPjm
— Debbie Kirk (@DebbieKirk89) October 22, 2022
As long as we have referees have taken an oath to help fellow members that is in every part of corruption in our country from getting work to jumping que for promotion from someone more qualified law courts letting there oath allow the law to be corrupted they have taken oaths in there jobs but Mason oath is the one they stand by this country is in a mess cause the qualified personal are losing out to an oath so anyone there is only allowed one oath so these societies are running this country like deep south in America the kkk yes it is here and it discriminates against roman Irish catholics but we strife to keep faith