The modern game often feels like it is played as much in the review room as on the pitch, and Monday's trip to Fir Park was another stark reminder of...
The modern game often feels like it is played as much in the review room as on the pitch, and Monday's trip to Fir Park was another stark reminder of that reality. For both Celtic and Hearts, the knife edge between a deserved point and a crushing defeat came down to the man with the whistle and his colleagues in the VAR booth. But did they get it right The conversation will linger all week.Let's start with the incident that had the travelling Hearts support howling. A clatter inside the box, a long pause, and then the dreaded signal for a penalty review. Hearts thought they had a cast iron spot kick. The contact was clumsy, the attacker got across his man, and the ball spun loose. From the stands, it looked a stonewaller. But the officials, after what felt like an eternity of frame by frame analysis, decided the contact was initiated outside the box or that it simply wasn't clear and obvious. That is the rub with the current interpretation isn't it The law says clear and obvious error, but the reality is that every single one of these calls is utterly subjective. Hearts will feel aggrieved, and frankly, they have a point. When you see a boot on a shin inside the eighteen yard box, the natural expectation is a penalty. The referee bottled the big call in real time, and the VAR was too cautious to overrule him.Then came Celtic's turn in the spotlight. A late scramble, a hopeful ball into the mixer, and a body on body collision that sent a Bhoys attacker to the turf. This time the whistle went the other way. The contact was soft, let's be honest about that. There was no malicious intent, no wild lunge. But the defender got himself in a terrible position, his arms were wrapped around the Celtic man, and he pulled him back as the ball dropped. In the cold light of the replay, it was clumsy defending rather than a cynical crime. The referee gave it. And crucially, the VAR stayed out of it. This is where the consistency falls apart. One soft contact is given, a heavier one is ignored. That is not a criticism of the officials being corrupt, it is a reflection of a system that has become a lottery.For Brendan Rodgers, the result is all that matters. Three points on the road keeps the machine rolling. But the manager will know that his side lived dangerously, relying on a refereeing decision to break the deadlock. For Hearts, the frustration is deeper. They parked the bus effectively, they frustrated a quality side, and they were undone by a call that their own camp would argue should have gone the other way. The gulf in quality on the pitch was not that wide, but the gulf in fortune was massive.The truth is that Fir Park was a microcosm of the VAR era. It is an instrument that was supposed to remove controversy, but instead it has created a new breed of it. The technology is fine. The human application of it is a mess. And until the referees are told to go back to the monitor with the same aggression they show when blowing for a foul, we will keep having these debates. Celtic march on. Hearts lick their wounds. And the rest of us are left wondering what on earth the rulebook actually says.
