Hearts were wrongly denied a penalty in the 66th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Motherwell, with the Scottish FA’s Key Match Incident panel later ruling that referee Steven McLean should have awarded a spot-kick after being sent to the monitor.
The incident came when Alexandros Kyziridis went down in the box under a challenge from Tawanda Maswanhise while trying to go short to receive a corner. McLean had been asked by VAR to review the challenge, but he stuck with his on-field decision of no penalty. Kyziridis and Hearts boss Derek McInnes were both booked for their protests after the match.
The panel’s ruling was split 2:1, with two members saying VAR was correct to intervene and one saying the original decision was right. The SFA’s Key Match Incident panel said the majority deemed the on-field decision of no penalty to be incorrect and also judged the final outcome to be wrong because the referee should have given a penalty after going to the monitor.
The finding adds fresh weight to the debate around VAR in the Scottish Premiership, arriving in a week when a handball penalty incident given in Celtic’s favour on Wednesday helped seal a late winner and sent the system back under scrutiny. Hearts and Celtic are now set to meet on Saturday with the title on the line, giving the timing of the review extra significance for both clubs and for the wider race.
The panel also considered a separate incident from the Old Firm derby, ruling that Celtic defender Alistair Johnston had not committed a red card offence after a foul on Rangers midfielder Mikey Moore. Johnston was booked by referee Nick Walsh, and later said he believed in the moment that he had caught Moore on the top of the foot and that a yellow card felt fair. “As a defender now, you have to be so smart with every tackle you put in,” Johnston said. “Was I a little bit lucky? Yeah, probably. Was I intending to injure him? No.” He added: “I was just trying to put a hard tackle in as every single fan on both sides of that rivalry would want their defenders to do.”
For Hearts, the McLean review is the kind of decision that can linger long after the final whistle. For Celtic, the timing of the broader VAR debate only raises the temperature ahead of Saturday’s title showdown, when every call will be judged against the week that came before it.
