Celtic VAR controversy explained as Bobby Madden defends officials

Former referee Bobby Madden has backed the officials’ decision to rule out Celtic’s controversial goal during their 1-0 victory over St Johnstone.

Celtic thought they had doubled their advantage when Haissem Hassan found the net after Kasper Hogh appeared to keep Sebastian Tounekti’s cross alive near the goal line.

However, the assistant referee allowed the move to continue before eventually signalling for the ball to have gone out of play. The goal was therefore disallowed, with VAR subsequently reviewing the decision.

The incident has generated considerable debate, with pundits Kris Boyd and Andy Halliday both suggesting that the ball may have remained in play.

Celtic’s hopes of having the decision overturned were complicated by an issue with the available goal-line footage. The ball disappeared from the camera’s view for 1.19 seconds as it travelled around the goal-line area, meaning VAR could not establish its complete movement.

Madden has now explained why he believes the officials reached the correct conclusion.

He pointed out that the assistant referee had followed the correct VAR procedure by allowing the attack to finish before raising his flag. The same principle is used for delayed offside decisions, with officials instructed to let the play develop before making the final call.

Once the ball entered the net, the assistant referee confirmed his decision that it had crossed the line before Hassan’s finish.

VAR then reviewed the incident, beginning with the goal-line camera, but was unable to obtain uninterrupted footage of the ball’s movement.

According to Madden, the absence of conclusive footage means there was insufficient evidence to overturn the assistant referee’s original decision.

The former official argued that while viewers may believe the ball stayed in play, the assistant referee was in the best position to judge what happened and had correctly followed the required protocol.

The debate is therefore unlikely to disappear completely, particularly given the uncertainty created by the missing section of footage.

However, Madden’s assessment is that the officials could not overturn the on-field decision without clear evidence of an error.

For Celtic, the controversy ultimately had no impact on the result, with the champions holding on for a 1-0 victory in Perth. Nevertheless, the unusual VAR incident has ensured that the decision to disallow Hassan’s goal remains one of the major talking points from the match.