Ex-Premier League referee: James Sands 'lucky' to escape punishment as controversial Rangers footage emerges - 'Where was VAR?'
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Ex-Premier League referee: James Sands 'lucky' to escape punishment as controversial Rangers footage emerges - 'Where was VAR?'

Keith Hackett
Keith Hackett

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

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James Sands was "lucky" not to give away a penalty kick in Rangers' 3-2 win over Hibs in the Scottish Premiership last week (15 December), according to Keith Hackett.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee suggested VAR should have come in and awarded Hibs a spot-kick for handball.

The visitors launched a corner into the Rangers penalty area that appeared to his Sands' arm but referee Nick Walsh waved away appeals for a penalty.

VAR did not feel the on-field official had made a clear and obvious error and the game was allowed to continue.

"The player's not looking at the ball, that might be a clue or it might not be," Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.

"It's dropped down on him and he's not really made any movement towards it, I don't think.

"It's a difficult one because he has got his arm outstretched and it's hit him.

"The more you look at it, the more you are going to give a penalty kick.

"Given the current interpretation, I would have expected a penalty kick to be awarded. He's lucky.

"Really I would have thought that would be one where VAR comes in and says to the referee 'Go and have a look'."

Rangers' victory over Hibs kept that within touching distance of Celtic who won their first game back 1-0 over Aberdeen on Saturday (17 December).

Mick Beale's side are next in action on Tuesday (20 December) when they visit Pittodrie to face the Dons.

In other news, Rangers have set their sights on signing a World Cup star.

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