The SFA’s new Key Match Incident Review Panel have been split by VAR‘s decision not to award Rangers a second penalty in last weekend’s 3-0 win against Dundee.
The Gers progressed to the last four of the Premier Sports Cup thanks to a brace from Cyriel Dessers and a penalty from skipper James Tavernier. In the second half, striker Dessers won his side a spot kick after being fouled by Dundee’s Mohamed Sylla, but also felt a penalty should have been awarded in the first half after he was involved in an incident inside the box with the same player.
The new VAR panel – which is made up of five people who work in Scottish football, both on the pitch, in the media and in the SFA – vote on VAR calls made in the previous weekend’s round of fixtures in a report published weekly. And in Friday’s latest report which looked at 17 incidents across the weekend, the KMI panel voted 3-2 in favour of the on-field decision being incorrect and that a penalty should have been awarded to the Gers.
But despite the 3:2 majority, the panel agreed that VAR was correct not to intervene due to the decision not being a “clear and obvious error”, instead falling into category of “a more complex decision with a greater degree of subjectivity”. The report stated: “The panel discussed this decision at length with the majority (3:2) deeming the onfield decision incorrect, noting that the Dundee defender fouled the Rangers attacker.
“Two panellists believed that the contact was not sufficient to merit the award of a penalty. The majority (3:2) believed the VAR was correct not to intervene while two panellists believed a penalty should have been awarded after a VAR intervention.”
The panel had no qualms with the decision to award the penalty that led to Tavernier’s goal, despite Dundee boss Tony Docherty’s claims after the game that the call was “soft”. Overall, the report agreed with the 17 decision from the weekend, but there was one other call that split the panel.
Ross County boss Don Cowie was left baffled that his men were not given a penalty against St Johnstone after forward Jordan White collided with Saints keeper Ross Sinclair inside the area. Three panel members agreed with the onfield decision to gain a majority, but the remaining two panelists were of the opinion that Sinclair had initiated the contact and that a penalty should have been awarded.
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