Much of the fallout of Celtic’s win over Motherwell on Saturday has been the incident involving Kevin van Veen and Boli Bolingoli in the Celtic box. The incident has garnered outcry that the Well were denied a penalty by pundits but the footage shows that the referee actually got the call right by not giving a penalty to the Fir Park side.
Bolingoli was adjudged to have handled the ball in Celtic’s penalty area yesterday but replays suggest that the striker may have handled the ball shortly before this. One Twitter user took the footage and slowed it down, imitating what VAR do in England and across Europe, highlighting that
If you say that’s not handball by Motherwell player first your blind as bat, if VAR was used be free kick to celtic , handled ball in build up to goal pic.twitter.com/pfTlqvIjzo
— lubo77🕺 (@lubo771) October 17, 2021
Willie Collum was forced from the field due to a calf injury and Chris Fordyce, replaced the ref for the remainder of the game. Many are suggesting that Fordyce got it wrong by not giving Graham Alexander’s side a spot-kick but there is clearly contact between the Dutch striker’s arm and the ball before it hits Bolingoli’s arm.
