Furor over VAR decision now fuels anger in Scottish soccer's title race following England row
Just days after English soccer had what many said was its most controversial VAR call, Scotland said: Hold my beer.Two league title races on a knife edge, two hugely consequential refereeing decisions that provoked equal amounts of anger, confusion and conspiracy theories.Also delight for Celtic, which benefited from the disputed call Wednesday just as Arsenal did Sunday. Its actually quite disgusting, said Derek McInnes, coach of Scottish Premiership leader Hearts after seeing the handball incident that gave Celtic a last-minute penalty in a 3-2 win at Motherwell.Its such a bad decision, said McInnes, who takes his Hearts team to Celtic for a final showdown Saturday with a one-point lead in the standings.That lead could and most in Scotland seemed to believe should be three points.Results on the fieldWednesday evening in Scotland was the second-last round of games in a title race for the ages.Unheralded Hearts has led the league for months trying to bring the trophy back to the club after a 66-year wait. Hearts easily beat Falkirk 3-0 at the same time as Celtic's back-and-forth drama at Motherwell. A tense split-screen evening got clearer focus in the closing minutes.Motherwell leveled at 2-2 in the 85th minute at Fir Park, just before Hearts got its third in the 86th at a Tynecastle Park pulsating with the noise of 19,000 raucous fans.If those results stood, Hearts would go to Celtic able to lose by two clear goals Saturday and still win the title on the tiebreaker of goal difference.Then, Celtic had a throw-in near the Motherwell penalty area in the last of four minutes of stoppage time.The penalty incidentThe throw-in was launched long and Celtics United States defender Auston Trusty jumped for a header with Motherwells Sam Nicholson.Trustys shoulder seemed to lift Nicholsons arm upward, pushing his hand toward his face. The ball was cleared high and about 20 meters (yards), apparently from Nicholsons header. No foul was spotted by the referee.Trusty went down as if struck in the head and referee John Beaton eventually went to his pitchside monitor for a video review.The main camera angle did not seem conclusive but Beaton judged a handball offense and pointed to the penalty spot.With the last kick, in the 99th minute, Celtic forward Kelechi Iheanacho scored. Hearts fans who stayed on at Tynecastle watched their phone screens in dismay.Celtic will now clinch its 14th league title in 15 years with a win by any score against Hearts, which must avoid defeat.Coach reactionsIts shocking, its a shame for the game, Motherwell coach Jens Berthel Askou said. It felt totally unreal.The Danish coach said Nicholson's arm was pushed and questioned if the ball ever even struck a hand. I cant see it no matter what angle I look at. Its a crazy thing to be part of.McInnes agreed, saying: I thought I was missing something when I was watching it.The Celtic view was different.We got a penalty which looks as if its pretty clear-cut, said Martin ONeill, the 74-year-old Celtic coaching great now on his second interim spell in a season of turmoil at the Glasgow giant.Askou also articulated what many Scottish fans and pundits had said since a series of disputed VAR decisions at Celtic and Hearts games at the weekend.I think the big question is, Askou said, What are we even doing here?The view of VARVideo review of on-field decisions has been a maelstrom of debate since FIFA fast-tracked it to a World Cup debut in 2018.Still, the camera system designed to eliminate clear and obvious errors by match officials is probably most controversial in Britain. That is mostly not FIFAs fault, but how match officials there interpret what they see.The furor reached a Premier League peak Sunday.Arsenal was clinging to a 1-0 lead, to stay clear of title rival Manchester City, when West Ham thought it scored from a stoppage-time corner to earn a point in its own fight against relegation.It stemmed from a melee of jumping, pushing, tugging bodies in the goalmouth seen at corners in most Arsenal games this season, and branded wrestlemania by some media. After an unusually long video review, the match officials disallowed the goal for a foul on Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya. It was among at least five fouls committed by both teams as the ball arrived from the corner. Still images of the messy tangle were almost comical.Had the West Ham goal stood, City would now be top of the Premier League with two rounds left after a 3-0 win Wednesday over Crystal Palace. Arsenal and Celtic are favored to win titles in the next 10 days. The debate will surely rage in Britain for many years.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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