“The referees are loving it” – Former Celt blasts ‘ridiculous’ VAR and takes a swing at officials

VAR has certainly hit the country by storm, hasn’t it? But not in the way we had hoped.

The now-controversial technology has been the major headline draw in Scottish football due to the number of contentious decisions it has led to and for those decisions that it has not.

Let’s stick to Celtic, for now.

Over the past month, we have had three, of what can only be described as, terrible penalty decisions given against us.

Bernabei and the weekend’s decision against O’Riley have to be the worst of them all while the technology ‘missed’ Michael Smith’s handball at Hearts, a Motherwell red card on Wednesday night and a Ross County goalkeeping error where the keeper dropped and picked up a ball only for a free kick to be awarded TO ROSS COUNTY!!

And I’ve not even mentioned Jota’s ‘offside’ goal.

Former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie has spoken out about the new refereeing system and he is far from happy about it.

Speaking to Football Insider, McAvennie said, “It is ridiculous.

“Only in Scotland, everywhere in England they have got lines and they just cut corners in Scotland so that the camera angle is behind. It is absolutely ridiculous.

“It is embarrassing. It has only been here two weeks and it is completely messing up the game. Seven or eight minutes of stoppage in a game is ridiculous.

“I am not a big fan, I never was. I thought VAR was going to come in and sort things out. See when you have got to put lines in, it is not offside. Every fan up and down the country will accept that.

“The referees are loving it because it is making them the centre piece. I have not got a nice word to say about the referees at the moment.“

Whilst the domestic scene shuts down for the next month due to the World Cup, VAR remains the focus of attention and one would hope that with this break, the powers that be look at new ways to improve how the new technology can be implemented to improve the decision making in our game.

I won’t hold my breath though.

Who are Celtic’s most capped players from these countries?