Dundee United should not have been awarded a penalty that saw them equalise at Hibernian on Saturday, says the Scottish FA’s key match incident (KMI) review panel.
The incident – in the 89th minute at Easter Road – followed a free-kick into the box as United’s Emmanuel Adegboyega went down, claiming his shirt was pulled by Hibs’ Mykola Kuharevich.
On-field referee Colin Steven did not deem the matter as a foul, however, VAR Greg Aitken advised for an on-field review.
Three of the five review panel members thought Aitken was wrong to intervene, believing the incident was not a clear and obvious enough error.
Kuharevich was shown a second yellow card for the clash with Adegboyega, before Sam Dalby equalised from the spot.
What did Ref Watch say?
Dermot Gallagher on Ref Watch:
“With offsides, I understand why they take so long. With a foul, I can’t see why it would take four minutes because that’s definitely not clear and obvious.
“The unfortunate thing is, once he’s gone to the screen and decided it is a foul, he then goes back and yellow cards the player and he’d already had a yellow, so it really ramped up.
“It’s very difficult to justify a four-minute look at the screen to find a shirt-pull. You’re looking.”
What about the other decisions?
The KMI review panel reviewed 23 VAR interventions across the last two rounds of Scottish Premiership fixtures and League Cup semi-finals – and say five other on-field decisions were correctly overturned.
St Johnstone’s goal against St Mirren – which was initially ruled out – should have stood, with VAR right to award it.
Elsewhere, the penalties awarded to Aberdeen against Rangers, St Johnstone against Hearts and St Mirren against Ross County after VAR checks were all correct interventions.
The panel is made up of three independent panel members with established careers within Scottish football – such as coaches, former players and members of the Scottish football media – one representative from the SFA and one representative from SPFL clubs.