SFA refereeing panel finds Celtic wrong to get late controversial penalty against Motherwell

The SFA’s KMI refereeing panel has ruled Celtic should not have been awarded a last-minute penalty in their penultimate Scottish Premiership match against Motherwell.

Martin O’Neill’s men won 3-2 at Fir Park thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho’s spot-kick deep into stoppage time.

That victory enabled them to take it to a final day title-decider against Hearts, which saw them clinch the title after a 3-1 win at Celtic Park.

However, the independent referee panel has ruled that VAR should not have intervened in the awarding of the spot kick at Fir Park.

The ball was launched into the box and Motherwell attacker Sam Nicholson was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area as he challenged for the ball with Auston Trusty.

The referee John Beaton didn’t notice anything untoward with the challenge, but was called to the monitor by VAR official Andrew Dallas.

Beaton took less than 20 seconds to decide it was a penalty after looking at replays and Iheanacho slotted the resulting spot kick to take it down to the final day.

If the score had remained 2-2, then Celtic would have needed to beat Hearts by three clear goals to clinch the title.

The decision sparked huge controversy with pundits outside the Scottish game calling it the “worst VAR decision they had ever seen”.

In the KMI panel’s verdict, published on Friday, they stated: “The majority (2:1) of the panel deemed the on-field decision of play on to be correct.

“Two panel members felt VAR was incorrect to intervene and the penalty was incorrectly awarded for handball after OFR.

“One panel member felt that VAR was correct to intervene and a penalty should have been awarded.”