Referees chief Willie Collum has explained why Dundee were correctly awarded a penalty against Dundee United on January 2 despite “sympathy” for Kevin Holt.
The two city sides clashed in the first Premiership fixture of 2025 with the Tangerines coming out 2-1 winners at Dens Park.
That was after falling behind to Simon Murray’s spot-kick on 61 minutes.
Referee Steven McLean pointed to the spot after being sent to the monitor by Video Assistant Referee Gavin Duncan to review a handball shout against United defender Holt.
Despite the contact not being deliberate, Collum backed up the decision to award Dundee a penalty.
In the Scottish FA’s VAR Review on YouTube, ref chief Collum said: “We can have sympathy for the player here because it is coming over a player’s head but clearly the arm is out from the body.
“You could even argue there is a movement towards the ball albeit I don’t think this is deliberate.
“What was interesting was the Dundee United player claimed, it is hard to tell from the footage but I believe him, that the ball makes contact with his head before it goes onto the arm.
“But, for us, this is a brush of the head. It’s not clearly heading the ball onto your arm.
“Don’t always think if the ball comes from another part of the body it completely negates the chance of a penalty kick.
“The arm is too far out for us, clearly in a punishable position and also any touch from the head here is irrelevant.”
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