Scottish FA boss Ian Maxwell puts Rangers penalty snub down to 'human nature'

Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell insists "human nature" dictates that officiating mistakes will happen as the fallout from Rangers' penalty snub at Hampden Park continues.

Patrick Stewart, who began his new role as the Ibrox club's CEO on Monday, has sought an explanation from the SFA over why the VAR failed to get involved in a potential penalty in the Premier Sports Cup final on Sunday when Celtic defender Liam Scales fouled Gers winger Vaclav Cerny.

Referee John Beaton blew for a foul but replays showed the infringement was in the box. The free-kick from just outside the area came to nothing before Celtic went on to win 5-4 on penalties after a 3-3 draw in 120 minutes.

Gers boss Philippe Clement described the non-intervention by VAR Alan Muir and assistant Frank Connor as "really weird" - with former referee Bobby Madden saying he was "amazed" that a penalty was not awarded. Neither VAR official will reportedly be involved in William Hill Premiership action this weekend.

Maxwell, speaking in Glasgow at Pitching In, a campaign to raise £50million over the next five years to improve football facilities across the country, is "absolutely" confident that VAR is doing its job for the most part but factored in the human aspect.

He said: "Decisions will be wrong, that's a given. We'll eradicate them as much as we possibly can.

"VAR has done that in a vast majority of cases. There are always going to be one or two that will fall out with that, because there's people involved and in anything that involves a person in any walk of life, there will be decisions made that don't go the way we want them to go or are incorrect.

"That's just part of human nature. This is the first time I've been asked this year about a VAR decision. It's not always been that way.

"I think that since Willie (Collum, head of refereeing) has come in, the transparency, the way he's dealt with things, has been a breath of fresh air, and made a real difference on and off the pitch and we want to drive that forward.

"Since football began, people have been talking about refereeing decisions, and we will talk about them forever more. And that's part of the game.

"There will never be a point where there isn't a contentious decision because people disagree on decisions.

"That's the beauty of the sport. You get 20 football fans in a room. You'll get 25 different views on whether a decision or a foul was right or wrong. But we're never going to change that."

The Glasgow giants are set to again be in trouble following the display of pyrotechnics at Hampden Park which delayed the kick-off due to the smoke which engulfed the pitch, while there were reports of Rangers and Celtic ultras clashing in Glasgow before the game.

Both clubs are already under investigation by the Scottish Professional Football League after a display of pyrotechnics took place in their respective semi-finals at the national stadium.

Maxwell said: "Obviously, the disorder that we saw at the weekend is unacceptable.

"Primarily we will talk about inside the stadium, because that's the bit that we've got more control over.

"We want to eradicate pyrotechnics from the game. We're now seeing kick-offs being delayed. We're now getting feedback from players about how much they are feeling it from the impact that it's having on them.

"The vast majority of supporters don't want it in stadiums. We are seeing supporters have to leave the game early because of breathing difficulties that are brought on by the smoke.

"It's unacceptable. It's a worldwide football problem. It's not Scotland-specific.

"Nobody has quite cracked how to deal with it yet, but it's incumbent on ourselves, SPFL, Scottish Government, Police Scotland, to work together to try and find a solution because it's on the increase, and it's definitely unwelcome in Scottish football and we need to try and eradicate it."

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