Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell has argued that "human nature" inevitably leads to errors in officiating as he addressed the controversy over a denied penalty claim from Rangers at Hampden Park.
The fallout continues after new Ibrox CEO Patrick Stewart, who took on his role this past Monday, demanded an explanation from the SFA regarding the Video Assistant Referee's (VAR) non-interference during the Premier Sports Cup final against Celtic, where a potential foul on Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny inside the box was missed.
Although referee John Beaton acknowledged a foul had occurred, replays suggested it took place within the penalty area. Nonetheless, the resulting free-kick amounted to nothing as Celtic triumphed in a nail-biting 5-4 penalty shoot-out following a thrilling 3-3 draw over 120 minutes.
The absence of VAR intervention, particularly from officials Alan Muir and assistant Frank Connor, has been labelled as "really weird" by Rangers manager Philippe Clement, with ex-referee Bobby Madden expressing his astonishment that no penalty was given.
Reports indicate that neither VAR official will take part in any William Hill Premiership matches this weekend.
Despite the contentious incident, Maxwell, while attending Pitching In - a campaign aiming to inject £50million into improving national football facilities over five years - remains "absolutely" confident that VAR predominantly functions effectively.
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Yet he acknowledges that mistakes are an unavoidable part of the game, stating: "Decisions will be wrong, that’s a given. We’ll eradicate them as much as we possibly 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 in any walk of life, there will be decisions made that don’t go the way we want them to go or are incorrect.
"That’s just part of human nature. This is the first time I’ve been asked this year about a VAR decision. It’s not always been that way.
"I think that since Willie (Collum, head of refereeing) 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.
"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.
"That’s the beauty of the sport. You get 20 football fans in a room. You’ll get 25 different views on whether a decision or a foul was right or wrong. But we’re never going to change that."
The Glasgow giants are set to again face trouble following the display of pyrotechnics at Hampden Park which delayed the kick-off due to the smoke which engulfed the pitch, while there were reports of Rangers and Celtic fans clashing in Glasgow before the game.
SPFL chiefs have sounded the alarm over escalating disorder at football matches, following the uproar in recent semi-finals where pyrotechnics were set off. Maxwell expressed his concerns, saying: "Obviously, the disorder that we saw at the weekend is unacceptable."
"Primarily we will talk about inside the stadium, because that’s the bit that we’ve got more control over. We want to eradicate pyrotechnics from the game. We’re now seeing kick-offs being delayed. We’re now getting feedback from players about how much they are feeling it from the impact that it’s having on them."
"The vast majority of supporters don’t want it in stadiums. We are seeing supporters have to leave the game early because of breathing difficulties that are brought on by the smoke.
"It’s unacceptable. It’s a worldwide football problem. It’s not Scotland-specific.
"Nobody has quite cracked how to deal with it yet, but it’s incumbent on ourselves, SPFL, Scottish Government, Police Scotland, to work together to try and find a solution because it’s on the increase, and it’s definitely unwelcome in Scottish football and we need to try and eradicate it."
