4 Hearts and Hibs VAR decisions assessed by Willie Collum as trio of penalty incidents put under microscope

Four VAR decisions made in matches involving Hearts and Hibs have been assessed by head of referees Willie Collum.

In a bid to boost transparency surrounding the refereeing tech, one of Collum’s early moves in his new role is the VAR Review, a show in which he goes over some decisions made in recent Premiership matches. Two of the games he goes over in the most recent episode involve Hearts and Hibs.

Collum has ran the rule over a 3-0 defeat for the Jambos at Celtic, which included VAR overturning a Liam Scales offence for handball inside the Hoops box after a penalty was initially awarded. Then at the other end, James Penrice’s handball off a Nicolas Kuhn cross is also dissected.

For Hibs, their 1-0 defeat to Rangers is the subject of attention. A VAR check told ref Nick Walsh that Hibs should be awarded a penalty after a John Souttar handball, but the defender wasn’t shown a red card. There was also debate over whether goalkeeper Jack Butland stayed on his line as Mykola Kukharevych went on to miss the spot-kick, and the Rangers stopper just about managed it.

Here is what Collum said on four of the big calls in recent Hearts and Hibs games.

Liam Scales overturned handball vs Hearts

“This clip is really good at looking at handball criteria. I thinl firstl, it’s a difficult decision at speed. The view from the main camera, it probably looks like a penalty kick. But when you start to analyse it and the VAR looks at different angles, they quickly identify that it actually hits the defender above the t-shirt line. That is really important as above the t-shirt line is not a punishable handball. People when looking at this clip, look at proximity. If you’d moved the ball 30cm down the arm, it would have been a penalty even though it’s very close, as the arm is too outstretched for us. Proximity would be more considered when the arm isn’t as high as it is here. For us, this arm is too much in an unnatural position to be challenging for the ball. “

James Penrice handball vs Celtic

“The cross is coming in and the Hearts player has his arm raised. Unnatural, and blocks the cross. We’ve been able to see a couple of clips like that this season. On this occasion, the arm is out from the body.”

John Souttar handball vs Hibs and no red card

"It's a correct decision for us," said refs chief Collum. "It's very, very close, there's no question about that. But we think that the Rangers defender throws himself into a mode to save the shot or block the shot at all costs. Unfortunately for him here, he's made his body bigger and it's not natural.

"It can be easier to justify a natural position when you're standing. But when you dive to block a shot, it makes it even more difficult to defend such an arm movement. There's also a slight arm movement, albeit I don't think it's deliberate, but I agree with the on-field referee team and the VAR team that it's not a deliberate handball, but certainly a punishable handball.

"Here, there's every opportunity that the goalkeeper can save this shot. The fact that no card was shown could be debated. If the referee had deemed John Souttar's actions as deliberate, he probably would have received a yellow card for blocking a shot deliberately at such close range from the goal. But because the referee and the VAR team don't deem this as a deliberate handball, there's no need for a yellow card because that was removed from the laws of the game. We would not support a red card. this is not an obvious goalscoring opportunity because the goalkeeper has the opportunity to save this shot."

Jack Butland staying on his line vs Hibs

“We're content. It's important when you analyse a clip like this that you get the accurate point when the kicker takes the penalty. You hear the VAR describing the goalkeeper's back foot being on the line. He says it's just on the line, which I would accept. On, behind or above the line.

"It's absolutely correct in terms of law. They've used the correct criteria, taken their time to analyse if the kick point is correct and analysed where the goalkeeper is. You can see the foot is on the line and you can see that technically, this is a correct decision."