The Scottish FA Key Match Incident panel have backed Willie Collum in blasting the decision to not award Rangers a penalty in the Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic.
The talking point after Brendan Rodgers watched his side lift the trophy was the moment that Liam Scales hauled Vaclav Cerny to the ground on the edge of the box. Referee John Beaton awarded a free-kick and while replays showed the winger was in the box at the time of the incident VAR duo Alan Muir and Frank Connor opted against intervening to award a spot-kick with Celtic going on to win the clash on penalties.
The Head of Refereeing Operations at the SFA Collum didn't hold back on blundering Muir and Connor as he called the decision "unacceptable" not to award Rangers a spot-kick as the SFA released the full audio exchange from Clydesdale House. And the KMI panel have not been any more forgiving with all five members of the independent panel agreeing that VAR should have intervened to award a penalty.
The difficulty rating of the incident was marked just one out of five. That sees it graded as a "a simple decision that all officials should get correct".
The KMI notes on the matter read: "The panel unanimously agreed that the incorrect decision was reached. A penalty-kick should have been awarded after a factual review as the holding continued inside the penalty-area."
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