Premier League legend and former Celtic player Roy Keane has destroyed critics of refereeing in Scotland as he defended decisions that aided the Hoops in the title race.
Martin O’Neill got the Celts over the line last weekend when his side beat Hearts 3-1 to win the Scottish Premiership title on the final day. The Jambos had been league leaders for 250 days, but it was snatched at the last minute by the Glasgow side.
Referees were the talk of the town before the match due to events that occurred during Celtic’s match against Motherwell. In the dying embers, Well defender Sam Nicholson jumped with his arm in the air, meaning that when he tried to head it away, the ball struck his hand, resulting in referee John Beaton pointing to the spot. Kelechi Iheanacho converted the spot kick, and Beaton had to be placed under police protection following the result due to unhappy supporters from around the country.
Now, Keane has stood by the referee and believes that he made the right decision.
While Manchester United icon Gary Neville and Arsenal man Ian Wright were debating the topic of VAR in football, Keane brought up the call. He said:
You’re right about stupidity of the players, you go back to the Arsenal one last week. I think the stupidity of players, Celtic, you’re on about handball, players jumping up with their arms, don’t give them a chance. It’s almost a lack of intelligence from players.
Wright moved to defend the players and mentioned the incident on the final day that led to Celtic being awarded a penalty. Hearts defender Alexandros Kyziridis slid with his arm up, which stopped Kieran Tierney’s cross from entering the box.
Did you see the Celtic one? I’m talking about the weekend, at the weekend against Hearts. He’s blasted at it. His body is, when you’re going to…
Roy, your arm naturally when you go to like that, your arm does that. I’m thinking they’ve got to start taking these things into consideration.
It’s like even the Celtic one in the week where it’s come up [against Motherwell]. How can a ball go that far if it doesn’t…
Keane then interjected, saying:
Of course, but why as a player, you’ve got to the last minute. Why would you put your hand up there to head it?
What we love – truthfully, Hearts were excellent – but top level sport. It’s brutal. It’s a reminder to everybody, you’re trying to win stuff, win stuff, win, not assists or corners, you got to win stuff. It’s brutal but that’s why we love it. I love watching top level sport. It’s cruel but it’s why we love it.
Refereeing controversy took over Scotland
The controversy after the penalty decision at Fir Park completely took over Scottish football. Hearts felt hard done by, and Derek McInnes didn’t wait long to tell the world exactly how he felt.
He branded the decision ‘disgusting’, and it added to the growing fire of hatred for officials. Supporters, no matter what club they have their allegiance to, will always be upset by at least one decision every season, but the situation has gotten to a point in Scotland that people are calling for a full-on reform.
The SFA seem reluctant to do so, so whether we will ever see anything change is yet to be seen. For the Scottish Cup semi-final ties at Hampden, pundit Michael Stewart was banned from the ground and the car park for ‘questioning the integrity’ of the SFA. That lock-out is yet to be lifted, and it does seem harsh considering that sports journalism and the football itself is a game of opinions.
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