SFA chief concedes 'decisions will be wrong'

Celtic defender Liam Scales was booked pulling down Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny

Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell admits some "decisions will be wrong" and that is down to "human nature" in response to Rangers' frustration at being denied an extra-time penalty in Sunday's Premier Sports Cup final defeat against Celtic.

Video assistant referee (VAR) officials failed to alert referee John Beaton that Liam Scales' tug on Vaclav Cerny's jersey appeared to occur on the line, rather than just outside the box.

With the match poised at 3-3, Scales was booked for the offence and James Tavernier hit the resultant free-kick over the crossbar.

With no further scoring at Hampden, the final was settled on a penalty shoot-out and Celtic prevailed after Kasper Schmeichel saved from Ridvan Yilmaz.

"Decisions will be wrong, that's a given," Maxwell told the Press Association without giving a specific answer on the matter. "We'll eradicate them as much as we can.

"VAR has done that in a vast majority of cases. There are always going to be one or two that will fall out with that, because there's people involved and in anything that involves a person, there will be decisions that are incorrect. That's human nature."

Maxwell added: "This is the first time I've been asked this year about a VAR decision. It's not always been that way."

Head of refereeing Willie Collum is expected to address the incident in his weekly VAR review on Thursday.

"Since Willie has come in, the transparency, the way he's dealt with things, has been a breath of fresh air, and made a real difference on and off the pitch and we want to drive that forward," Maxwell continued.

"Since football began, people have been talking about refereeing decisions, and we will talk about them forever more. And that's part of the game.

"There will never be a point where there isn't a contentious decision because people disagree on decisions."

Rangers manager Philippe Clement called the incident - which took place early in the first half of extra time - a "really decisive moment", going on to describe the absence of VAR intervention as "weird".

New Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart said on Tuesday that the club have asked for an explanation of the decision.