Celtic 'got lucky' with VAR decision as Martin O'Neill lifts lid on referees meeting

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill was among the attendees as Scottish FA head of referee operations Willie Collum chaired a meeting with Premiership clubs this week.

Intended to provide clarity on aspects of VAR, O'Neill left the gathering with an acceptance that officials are trying their best with limited resources compared to their Premier League counterparts in England.

The 74-year-old feels his side may have "got lucky" with a favourable decision in their 4-0 win at Dundee United last month, when Camilo Duran netted after the ball deflected into his path via the hand of teammate Kasper Hogh.

Celtic were then on the wrong end of a debatable call in their 2-1 victory at St Johnstone in midweek when a Haissem Hassan goal was disallowed for the ball going out of play. VAR were unable to intervene because the ball briefly disappeared from the camera frame.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill attended a meeting with SFA head of referee operations Willie Collum this week. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group) | SNS Group

"We had a meeting with the referees. It was really fine," O'Neill said ahead of today's Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Rangers at Ibrox. "I think they're very open, they want to try. Willie's really trying to have a go.

"Martin Atkinson [SFA VAR manager], who I knew from my past down in England, I think they want open discussions with us.

"We've all made plenty of mistakes. It was trying to clear up a couple of things from VAR. If we haven't got the number of cameras that the Premier League has, there's not much you can do about it. To get this extra stuff in, they're talking about £1.5million a season, which just doesn't seem feasible. It's a shame. But it is what it is. It would be lovely if you could do it.

"I don't know how the wind blew that one out of play at St Johnstone considering there was no wind! I'm just having a bit of fun."

In his first VAR Review Show of the season, which aired on Friday, Collum argued that the decision to allow Duran's goal to stand at Tannadice was correct in accordance with the current handball rules.

SFA head of referees Willie Collum. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group) | SNS Group / SFA

"It should stand in law, without doubt," Collum said. "There's absolutely no question about that, because the Celtic player, when it hits his hand, he's not the goalscorer. If it hits his hand then he flicks it into the net, then obviously it would be disallowed immediately. But this is no intent, it's not punishable, it's two players sliding in and challenging for a ball, the ball is on ground level, it bounces up and hits the Celtic player's arm."

O'Neill admitted he would have been unhappy if a similar incident had gone against his side.

"There's some things that they wanted to be pretty adamant about and I thought that was absolutely fine," he said. "But it's because there's so many variances now about what the rule is, in terms of somebody scoring a goal and a handball – the second man handling the ball before it goes to the goalscorer.

"I thought to myself at Dundee Utd we got lucky with our second goal when the ball came into the penalty box, and Kasper slid in, and it looked like his hand was in an unnatural position.

"I said to them, I know it went in my favour, but had it happened against me, I wouldn't have been widely happy about it.

"Apparently that was constituting the rules, but there was a fair argument to say, if your hand is out there, then things can change again. Some go for you, some don't."