Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has blasted Philippe Clement for his ‘crass’ reaction to being denied a Premier Sports Cup final penalty against Celtic – comments he could still be punished for.
Rangers boss Clement was left raging after his side lost 5-4 on penalties almost a fortnight ago, following a thrilling 3-3 draw after extra-time at Hampden Park. Vaclav Cerny was fouled by Liam Scales, with a shirt pull starting outside the Celtic box and appearing to continue into it.
Referee John Beaton failed to give a spot-kick and was not instructed to review the incident by VAR, a call Clement described as ‘decisive’ and ‘really weird’ in his post-game press conference. And at the end of those media duties, the Belgian urged journalists to ‘really dig in to things‘ regarding the failure to award his side a penalty – something Hackett believes is potentially worthy of punishment.
[Clement] is allowed to write a letter, or pick up the phone to the FA and [Willie] Collum (SFA head of refereeing), if he’s not happy,” Hackett told Ibrox News. “Collum would no doubt have agreed to meet him. The point here is that, if you question the integrity of a match official, which these comments appear to, it’s down to the Scottish FA to take action on the manager’s comments.
It’s not good enough. Referees don’t question errors made by players. The channels in place are there for him to express his concerns. These comments don’t help with the integrity of the competition. It’s a crass statement that shouldn’t have been made.”
What did Clement say?
The Rangers boss was far from happy to have missed out on what could have been a decisive spot-kick. But rather than referee Beaton, Clement’s frustration was aimed mostly at the VAR’s failure to recommend a review.
“My phone is overloaded with the penalty situation with Cerny,” the Rangers boss said. “I am getting messages now and that is a decisive moment in the game. He [Beaton] cannot see that moment. He didn’t get the communication from VAR to go to the screen which for me is a really weird situation.
I didn’t see it at the time. My phone is full of messages from everybody. I am focused on my team and those are things I can’t control. I know all of you like to dig deep into things. Maybe it’s a very important moment to dig into, about why there is no communication in a big moment like that and a big decision like that.”
And on his way out of the press conference, Clement then said: “So, last thing, I hope that you guys really dig into things, I hope. Thank you.
SFA reaction
The fallout to the missed penalty has been massive, and SFA chiefs have come out to explain the decision since. Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart has written to demand an explanation from the governing body, while SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum has also admitted a spot-kick should have been awarded.
“People will obviously hear me say that it’s wrong, but that’s not enough,” he said on the Scottish FA’s VAR Review show. “We need to now understand why did we get it wrong and how do we make things better, how do we improve, what’s the lessons learned from this incident?
“People will find it very hard to accept this error. It’s a really, really poor decision. It’s an unacceptable decision. The VAR team know that, everyone in refereeing knows it.
