SFA chiefs Ian Maxwell and Mike Mulraney are set to be grilled on Rangers’ Premier Sports Cup final penalty snub – as a former top referee blasted the Hampden hierarchy over their silence on the controversy.
New Ibrox CEO Patrick Stewart kicked off his first day at the Light Blues by firing off a letter to the authorities in a demand for clarity over why VAR failed to send on-field referee John Beaton to the monitor to review a potential penalty when Liam Scales fouled Vaclav Cerny.
The incident at first appeared to be outside of the box but TV replays showed it was on the line which experts believe should have led to a spot kick. Now Maxwell and Mulraney have been pencilled in to speak to the media to help launch a new SFA initiative on Wednesday and will see them quizzed on the incident amid Rangers’ fury.
And it comes as former referee Mike McCurry hit out at his old employers for not explaining why VAR Alan Muir didn’t get involved on Sunday. The 60-year-old, who refereed in Scotland until 2009 and was in charge of the 2005 League Cup final between Rangers and Motherwell, told the Rangers Review: “The SFA could come out and clarify that very, very quickly and very easily, and Willie Collum has in the past come out very quickly and clarified the situation and yet what we've got two days on is silence from them.
“We do not currently know whether VAR scrutinised that decision, or whether they took a cursory glance at it and just said go with the on-field decision, or whether they didn't look at it at all. I don't fault John [Beaton] at all – from John's angle, he could never see that. But in a day and an age where we've had goals disallowed with offside because of the width of a toenail as one manager would say, VAR really need to be involved in that.
"If I'm John Beaton there and I'm given a decision that is that close and the margin is so tight on it, I want to know that VAR's had a good look at that so that it’s the right decision, especially in a cup final.
"So if I'm John Beaton I'd be asking VAR to have a look at that. I'd be wanting VAR not just to have a cursory glance but to scrutinise that and in the time that passed VAR might have had a cursory look at that and just said go with the decision. I don't think they had time to scrutinise it properly.”
