FIFA has officially suspended Martin for 3 matches and fired two of its VAR staff after the leaks before the Rangers-Celtic match was revealed.

Hi Nick Walsh and Scottish FA were actually right on Rangers vs Celtic controversy – Don’t shoot the messenger’

Nick Walsh and the Scottish FA once again damaged their reputation as Rangers lost to Celtic.

Rangers crashed to a 3-1 defeat against Celtic in extra time of the Premier Sports Cup semi-final on Sunday, playing well over an hour with 10 men.

Thelo Aasgaard was rightly sent off for a high boot on Anthony Ralston, who himself avoided a second yellow card despite giving away a penalty for handball.

Auston Trusty also somehow avoided red for kicking Jack Butland in the head, prompting Rangers to demand a meeting with the Scottish FA and Willie Collum over both decisions.

Rangers were left unsatisfied with that meeting, but they may not have a leg to stand on in one of the cases.

Nick Walsh gets major controversy right against Rangers

Delivered with a warning, Calum Crowe has actually shared why Willie Collum and the Scottish FA were right with their explanation over Ralston.

Writing in the Scottish Daily Mail’s print edition on Wednesday (pg 60, 5 November), the journalist stuck his head out to actually defend the Scottish FA, saying the handball needs to be deliberate for another yellow card to be dished out.

Don’t shoot the messenger,” he wrote. “Those are merely the guidelines as laid out in the International Football Association Board’s laws of the game.

“Does a handball need to be intentional to award a penalty? No. Does it need to be intentional to award a penalty and a yellow card? Yes. That’s the difference.

Rangers have been here before – when is it too much?

This was less than a year after the 2024 Premier Sports Cup final, which was arguably worse somehow.

With the game finishing 3-3 after extra time, Rangers would go on to lose against Celtic, despite having a clear penalty denied by the officials.

Vaclav Cerny was fouled on the line of the box, which is a penalty by law, but VAR officials somehow gave a free-kick, prompting a swift apology.

It is all too little, too late, and these apologies and meetings do nothing to reverse the two defeats that Rangers have faced with silverware on the line.

Collum and the Scottish FA will never have full support due to their incompetent work; that is the brutal truth that will continue behind all of this.

The recent controversy surrounding Nick Walsh and the Scottish FA’s decisions in the Rangers vs Celtic match has sparked heated debates. Journalist Calum Crowe weighed in on the issue, defending the Scottish FA’s explanation regarding a contentious penalty decision. According to Crowe, the rules state that a handball needs to be deliberate to warrant a second yellow card and subsequent ejection from the game. In the incident involving Anthony Ralston, the handball wasn’t deemed intentional, so the referee’s decision to only give a free kick instead of a penalty and yellow card seems to be in line with the rules ¹.

The Key Match Incident (KMI) panel also backed up Walsh’s decisions in the match, including ²:
– *Rangers’ Appeals for Penalty*: The panel unanimously agreed that Rangers weren’t owed a penalty when Ianis Hagi went down in the box under Callum McGregor’s challenge.
– *Adam Idah’s Equalizer*: The panel supported the VAR decision to award the goal after it was initially flagged offside.
– *Nicolas Raskin’s Disallowed Goal*: The panel agreed that Raskin was indeed offside when he headed the ball into the goal.

Former Rangers star Steven Thompson expressed his bafflement over the non-penalty decision when Hagi was brought down in the box, stating it looked like a clear penalty. Meanwhile, pundit Michael Stewart questioned whether Walsh had spotted Hagi’s initial touch on the ball before the collision with Fabio Silva, potentially impacting the penalty call ³ ⁴.

It’s worth noting that Rangers manager Philippe Clement and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers have both had their share of controversies and criticisms regarding refereeing decisions. Ultimately, the decisions made by Walsh and the Scottish FA will likely continue to be scrutinized by both teams