SFA Chief Executive Acknowledges Inevitable ‘Wrong Decisions’

Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell acknowledged that certain “decisions will be wrong,” attributing this to “human nature.” His comments followed Rangers’ expressed frustration regarding an extra-time penalty not awarded during their Premier Sports Cup final loss to Celtic on Sunday, an incident involving Celtic defender Liam Scales, who received a booking for fouling Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny. VAR officials did not inform referee John Beaton that the foul by Liam Scales on Vaclav Cerny, a tug on his jersey, appeared to have taken place on the penalty area line, rather than merely outside the box. At a point when the score was tied 3-3, Scales was issued a yellow card for the infraction, and James Tavernier subsequently sent the resulting free-kick over the crossbar. As no additional goals were scored at Hampden, the final outcome was determined by a penalty shoot-out, with Celtic emerging victorious following Kasper Schmeichel’s save from Ridvan Yilmaz. Speaking to the Press Association, Maxwell stated, “Decisions will be wrong, that’s a given,” while refraining from providing a direct answer regarding the specific incident. He added, “We’ll eradicate them as much as we can.” Maxwell further explained, “VAR has done that in a vast majority of cases. There are always going to be one or two that will fall out with that, because there’s people involved and in anything that involves a person, there will be decisions that are incorrect. That’s human nature.” Maxwell also commented, “This is the first time I’ve been asked this year about a VAR decision. It’s not always been that way.” The head of refereeing, Willie Collum, is anticipated to discuss the occurrence during his regular VAR review scheduled for Thursday. Maxwell continued, stating, “Since Willie has come in, the transparency, the way he’s dealt with things, has been a breath of fresh air, and made a real difference on and off the pitch and we want to drive that forward.” He further remarked, “Since football began, people have been talking about refereeing decisions, and we will talk about them forever more. And that’s part of the game.” Maxwell concluded, “There will never be a point where there isn’t a contentious decision because people disagree on decisions.” Rangers manager Philippe Clement characterized the incident, which occurred early in the first half of extra time, as a “really decisive moment,” and subsequently labeled the lack of VAR intervention as “weird.” On Tuesday, new Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart confirmed that the club has requested an explanation regarding the decision.