Chris Sutton’s latest dig at Celtic’s Tynecastle controversy amid ‘common sense’ Anfield referee decision

Celtic and VAR have had a strained relationship this season. Who would have predicted that Liverpool’s victory over Tottenham would reopen old scars for the Parkhead club yesterday?

Refereeing technology has made some crucial decisions in some of Celtic’s most important games, the most recent of which awarded Fabio Silva a penalty after he had previously been penalised for diving by John Beaton.

VAR intervened and reversed the booking to give a penalty kick, giving Rangers new hope after falling behind 2-0 at Ibrox.

Celtic also fell foul of VAR at Tynecastle in March, when Hyunjun Yang was sent off for a high boot and Tomoki Iwata’s handball earned the Tynecastle team a penalty.

Chris Sutton brought up Yang’s ordering off yesterday, after the former Celtic hero watched Liverpool’s victory against Tottenham.

Chris Sutton’s latest jab at the SFA on the Celtic controversy

Joe Gomez of Liverpool challenged Spurs’ Brennan Johnson with an identical challenge to Yang’s high boot against Alex Cochrane at Tynecastle.

No action was taken against the Liverpool player, and Sutton took to X to express his emotions about match referee Paul Tierney’s decision.

Yang was sent off at Hearts for the same high boot as Gomez on Johnson then. No action taken against Gomez as common sense prevailed…

— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) May 5, 2024

The Yang red card has divided opinion among experts and former players, but there is no denying that Cochrane’s reaction after the challenge demonstrated that it was not as nasty as it was made up to be.

Following that game, Brendan Rodgers was sanctioned by the SFA for his comments about VAR.

It also meant that VAR heavily influenced the outcome of one of Celtic’s games while they were in the midst of a title battle, and while we don’t know yet if that will affect the outcome of the league, there is no doubt that if common sense had prevailed at Tynecastle back in March, Hearts’ victory over Celtic would not have been as easy as it was.

Watch the incredible Callum McGregor moment that sent Celtic Park wild!

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