Reason why VAR denied a penalty to Hearts against Celtic after Referee Colin Steven initially awarded a penalty

A penalty was called back against Celtic for Hearts in the 30th minute after a header from Lawrence Shankland hit Liam Scales, a defender for the Hoops.

Referee Colin Steven gave Hearts a penalty at first, but VAR looked at the call again.

After the VAR review, Steven changed his mind, which made the Hearts players and fans very angry, and they gathered around the referee to protest.

They didn’t agree with the decision, but it was the right one. This shows Willie Collum’s new method to Scottish refereeing and how well VAR is working under his direction.

There was a lot of misunderstanding about the switch because people weren’t sure if the ball had hit Shankland’s arm first or Scales.

But replays made it clear that wasn’t the case.

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During halftime, BBC Scotland commentator Liam McLeod explained why the decision was made. He did this by explaining how both the referee and VAR came to their conclusion.

McLeod told BBC Sportsound, “At first, the referee thought that Scales’ arm was not in a natural position and that the ball had traveled too far to be a handball.”

The arm was in a natural position, though, and the ball hadn’t gone far enough to be considered a handball after it was looked at again. The ball also hit the arm too high to be called a foul.

“Yes, the right call was made,” said commentator Michael Stewart in support of the final choice. What Liam said fits with what we saw and what we thought during the game.

“It’s nice to know that the referees are following the rules and making the right calls.”

It’s clear that the right choice was made.

Willie Collum, SFA Head of Referee Operations, talked about the new VAR rules on Clyde 1 Super Scoreboard last week. He said that defenders shouldn’t be punished for things that happen so close to them.

This sensible method, which includes both referees and VAR, wasn’t there last season. For example, Tomoki Iwata was wrongly sent off in the first game back.