Referee chief Willie Collum has praised his officials for not awarding Dundee a penalty moments before Rangers equalised in a tense Premiership clash last month.
The Dark Blues were leading 1-0 at Dens Park when Simon Murray went down in the Rangers box under a challenge by Clinton Nsiala.
No penalty was awarded by referee Calum Scott and the Gers duly ran up the other end to equalise through Vaclav Cerny.
Now the latest instalment of The VAR Review from the SFA has released the audio between ref Scott and Video Assistant Referee Greg Aitken.
Referee Scott is heard saying: “No, Simon Murray’s ran into him and gone down. Minimal contact. That’s not enough for a penalty kick.”
After reviewing the footage, VAR Aitken replies: “There’s no pull or push. There is slight contact. OK, content. OK.
“No ongoing checks for the penalty claim. Penalty’s cleared.”
Willie Collum
Ref chief Collum admits there was contact between Nsiala’s foot on Murray’s foot but insists it was not enough for a penalty kick.
He said: “Firstly there is good communication from the on-field referee, he describes the situation very well.
“There is contact but it is not enough. He believes part of that contact is caused by the Dundee attacker running into the Rangers player.
“When you look back at the incident, the Rangers player and the Dundee player have their eyes firmly fixed on the ball.
“There is contact at foot level but this is normal contact. It is normal footballing contact.
“Some people may argue nothing needs to be intentional for it to be a foul but we need to understand as well football is a contact sport.
“The VAR is right to check it, go through it thoroughly and make sure what the referee is telling us is what the pictures tell us as well.
“There is a key in the clip because the Dundee player immediately holds his foot.
“That’s a clear sign [to check] the contact at foot level. But there is not enough here for a foul and they are right, the on-field team and VAR team, to award the goal.”
Collum did add that had the referee given the penalty on the field that VAR would not have over-ruled him because of the contact.
He added: “If the referee deemed this a punishable action for a step on foot and awarded a penalty, we would coach that we wouldn’t expect that.
“But we also wouldn’t expect a VAR intervention.
“Contact does happen but it is not punishable and we are happy the goal stands.”
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