Celtic-Hearts key incident shows Scottish football can't live without VAR - but it needs tweaked

In a week where Scottish football debated the merits of scrapping VAR, along came a strong reminder that this is simply not an option worth considering.

The fallout from the handball incident at Motherwell in midweek - and whether the correct decision was made to award Celtic a last-gasp penalty which secured a crucial 3-2 win - dominated the build-up to the Premiership title decider.

Hearts were incensed as it meant that they would travel to Celtic Park with a one point lead rather than three, rendering their goal difference advantage academic, which proved decisive in the end. "Disgusting" was how manager Derek McInnes put it. Motherwell boss Jen Berthel Askou called it the worst decision he had ever seen.

Daizen Maeda, right, shows his anguish after his Celtic goal was ruled out for offside. | SNS Group

Referee John Beaton, who has been subject to police protection this week after having his personal details leaked online, would be inclined to disagree. He was called to the VAR monitor by Andrew Dallas, who pointed out a handball by Motherwell's Sam Nicholson, and a penalty was awarded based on the footage presented.

Whether Beaton was guilty of a "clear and obvious" error - the supposed threshold for a VAR intervention - is open to question. Those with Hearts and Rangers tendencies suggest not. Never a penalty. Those with Celtic leanings say otherwise. Stonewaller. One suspects if that the boot was on the other foot then those opinions would sway in the opposite direction.

However, the general dismay from the likes of Gary Lineker and other high-profile figures would suggest that there was no need for VAR to intervene in such a clearly subjective handball. The moment it did, Beaton was doomed to face recriminations either way, such was the nature of the evidence and the supposed offence.

It meant extra scrutiny and pressure was placed on referee Don Robertson and VAR Kevin Clancy at Celtic Park. After a powerful statement condemning the abuse of their officials, the Scottish Football Association would have hoped and prayed that the title decider would not be remembered for another controversial decision.

It is only thanks to VAR that this was not the case. Robertson had a good game overall but without help from Clydesdale House there would have been the inquest to end all inquests into the onfield decision to disallow Celtic's second goal for offside.

Replays showed a grave error had been made by the assistant referee who, presumably, deemed Daizen Maeda to have been offside in the first phase of play. This was incorrect as the Japanese forward did not play the ball until the second phase of play, when he received the ball in an onside position from Callum Osmand, who himself had been several yards onside when collecting a pass from Marcelo Saracchi.

Imagine a world where VAR had been scrapped. A perfectly legitimate title-winning goal would have been chalked off and Celtic may well have lost the title because of it. What then? The backlash would have been unimaginable. At least the handball at Motherwell can be debated. There was no debate to be had here.

VAR is here to stay and rightly so. A travesty has been avoided - and that is what the system should be used for. There should be no forensic analysis of replays to find a handball that no-one claimed for, that did not have a serious impact on the play, and that is only going to lead to criticism of referees and give Willie Collum sleepless nights ahead of his next VAR Review Show.

Let the events of this week be a lesson. If it's not clear and obvious - as in the case of the Maeda offside, or the Alexandros Kyziridis handball which was correctly penalised on the pitch - leave it alone. Give power back to referees and let VAR step in to save their bacon instead of sending them into the frying pan.

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