SFA confirm Maeda’s Easter Road equaliser should have stood
The SFA’s Key Match Incident panel have overwhelmingly determined that Daizen Maeda’s equalising ‘goal’ for Celtic in last Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Easter Road should not have been ruled out.
With the visitors trailing 2-0 to Hibs, the Japanese forward pulled one goal back and believed he’d squared the match when he turned home a cross from Alistair Johnston.
While match referee Steven McLean awarded the goal after assistant David Rome kept down his his flag, he was later compelled to chalk it off after VAR Alan Muir told him the ball had gone out of play just as the Canadian crossed it.
After the decision cost his side a point, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers expressed bemusement that such a judgment could be made on the basis of an image taken from the 18-yard line and dismissed it as ‘a guess’ .
That stance has now been vindicated after four of the five individuals on the KMI agreed there was not enough evidence for Muir to intervene.
Their report read: ‘The majority (4:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision of goal to be correct.
Daizen Maeda thought he had pulled Celtic level with a late equaliser against Hibs last weekend
VAR ruled his strike out after deeming the ball to have gone out of play in the build-up
Brendan Rodgers was left fuming at the full-time whistle following the controversial decision
‘They felt the factual VAR intervention for the ball being out of play was incorrect. One panel member felt VAR was correct to intervene as they believed one of the angles showed the ball out of play.”
Rodgers said at the time: ‘My take is that the (VAR) official Alan Muir has had a guess at it because the linesman arguably has the best view in the stadium and doesn’t give it.
‘For that to get overturned, then I’m assuming there’s an absolute clear image of the ball being out of play. My experience up here with VAR is that we don’t have all the angles.
‘They don’t have the equipment to say it’s conclusively out.
‘You’re actually viewing it from a secondary position which is a higher position. At that point you’re having a guess.’
Muir was also at the centre of controversy in the League Cup final last December when he — together with assistant VAR Frank Connor — failed to spot that Celtic’s Liam Scales had fouled Vaclav Cerny of Rangers inside the box.
Both were stood down the following weekend on the instruction of referees chief Willie Collum.
With Collum’s latest VAR Review show not due out until next week, his personal view on the Easter Road controversy — and any possible consequences for Muir — is not yet known.
