“THIS might be the worst VAR decision decision I’ve seen”.
Gary Lineker was making a hell of a statement when he got himself involved in the furore over Celtic’s winning goal against Motherwell at Fir Park on Wednesday evening – a goal that sends the Scottish Premiership to a nailbiting final-day shoot-out between the Hoops and Hearts at Parkhead.
I’m as convinced it was a handball as it’s possible to be. But I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again. On the flip side of that coin, former Rangers striker Kris Boyd, now a Sky Sports pundit, expressed astonishment in the studio minutes after the final whistle that the penalty had been given.
But by Thursday, when Sky were so delighted with the blanket media coverage of their live match that they invited Boyd to sit down with ex-Celtic frontman Chris Sutton for a single-subject Blue-Green head-to-head, Boyd’s certainty was gone. “I am not convinced it hits his hand,” said a now more subdued Boyd, adding, “even if it does, yeah?, even if it does, I still don’t think it’s a punishable action.”
Sutton, meanwhile, was holding fast to his assertion the previous night that the referee was right to give the penalty.
Why am I zeroing in on these two former players when le tout football is speaking about little else? Well, simply to illustrate a very simple truth, as evidenced by the contributions made by a pundit/fan from both sides of the Glasgow divide: It was a hotly disputed call that could have gone either way and such was its closeness that the referee was required to display the wisdom of Solomon. Some think his decision was Wisdom personified, others think it was more Norman Wisdom. Whatever the case, the penalty was a bog-standard VAR row of the kind that Gary Lineker used to adjudicate on three or four times every Saturday night on Match of the Day.
I’ve got huge respect for Lineker, not just because of his undoubted broadcasting skills, but for his stubbornness in standing up to the Farageist bullies who lost their minds every time he opened his mouth about anything other than football. Your job is 4-4-2 24/7 they told him; I’ll say the truth as I see it when I feel it needs to be said, he kept replying, until it cost him his job.
But the former England and Leicester No.9 was speaking with his heart on what's now known as that penalty, as were the majority of non-Scots who got involved in the debate. Lineker’s a neutral who has watched Rangers and Celtic totally dominate in Scotland since he was in his striking heyday – and he's now 65. Last time a club outside the big two won the title was 1985 when a certain Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to glory.
So, like the vast majority of other pundits and fans south of the border, Lineker was emotionally invested in the football fairytale of Hearts winning the title; and that’s completely understandable. I’d support a smaller club involved in a final day, winner-takes-all game with Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal or Man Utd. The many fans of the aforementioned big teams reading this won’t like that, but they'll understand the truth that it’s the most human thing in the world to cheer on the little guy.
And so, as the prospect of Hearts travelling to Glasgow tomorrow to win the title with a three-goal cushion disappeared at the point of referee John Beaton’s hand and the joyous image of a Hearts captain lifting the trophy moved further away, the huge disappointment – not to say devastation – moved neutral sports fans to respond with emotion rather than logic.
If you’d shown the main picture accompanying this article to Lineker with the shirts blacked out and the context removed, he’d say what’s abundantly clear, he’d say what even Rangers fan Kris Boyd now agrees with: 'Certainly looks like a handball, but who knows? It's such a tough call.'
Meanwhile, reaction in Scotland and here in the north was entirely familiar and predictable, splitting almost perfectly along tribal lines. But rather than concentrate on the insanely dramatic events at Fir Park on Wednesday night, those Hearts and Rangers fans who lamented the decision larded their indignation with a slew of other close decisions which they feel have gone Celtic’s way in recent days and weeks. The more philosophical among them shook their heads and sighed their disappointment at the quality of refereeing in the Scottish game. At the other end of the spectrum, the penalty was bewailed as evidence of a grand Moonies/Vatican conspiracy to keep those green ribbons on the Premiership trophy.
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Like Lineker, but for more traditional and considerably less romantic reasons, they viewed a commonplace refereeing disagreement as the worst thing to happen to the game since the mullet. That contested call became the distillation of everything they despise not just about sport, but about society and politics. The referee and his VAR colleagues became a lightning rod for the myriad frustrations and fury – only a minority of them football-related – of one half of the religious divide. Because while Gary Lineker probably doesn't know it, the Jambos fans sing The Billy Boys with all the passion of the Rangers fans, if in rather smaller numbers.
The preposterousness of refusing even to concede that both sides had a scintilla of a point in the penalty debate, never mind a whole one, spoke of a wider sense of unhappiness with the direction of national travel among the Hearts and Rangers fanbases – societal, political, cultural and sporting.
In the end, those who angrily and loudly refuse to brook dissent from the consensus that this was the ugliest injustice in the history of the beautiful game are, in their sense of unshakable certainty, shouting at themselves.
About more things than they’d care to admit.
