Credit: TNT Sports

Exclusive: Keith Hackett reacts to Daizen Maeda incident amid Celtic toil

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.

Published on:

22 Jan 2025, 4:20 pm

Celtic were denied a penalty after Daizen Maeda went down in the box against BCS Young Boys but should have no complaints, says Keith Hackett.

The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that the Japanese forward was "looking for the push" in their match against the Swiss side in the Champions League.

Celtic entered the match looking for a win that would put them in a strong position to qualify from the Champions League group stages, with their opponents Young Boys already eliminated from the competition.

While Celtic were left disappointed to not be given a spot-kick, VAR sided with referee Rohit Saggi in what proved to be the correct decision.

In an incident-filled game the Hoops did eventually score a goal that stood late on, before Maeda was sent off at the death for a kick out.

Celtic rightly denied a penalty for soft push

Louie Barry has been linked with a move to Celtic (Credit: Getty Images)

The incident happened in the 22nd minute with the score at 0-0, when Cheikh Niasse clumsily brought down Maeda.

The Japanese forward got in behind the Swiss team's backline and the Senegalese midfielder tried to cover for his centre-backs.

After feeling contact, Maeda slowed down, allowing Niasse to catch-up and as soon as contact was made the Celtic forward crumpled.

When asked by Football Insider if Saggi had made the right decision, Hackett said: "Celtic forward is looking for the push and slightly slows his movement forward, inviting the push then goes to ground.

"Not a penalty kick."

Come half-time, the Bhoys had already had three goals ruled out by Saggi, and had seen an Arne Engels penalty saved in an astonishing first-half of football.

After their attacking woes cost them in the first-half, Celtic fans would have been disappointed to hear that the club will struggle to meet Aston Villa's asking price for Louie Barry.

Luis Palma may be on his way out of Glasgow, with a number of EFL clubs looking to sign the winger.

In other news, there is an update on Tierney's move to Scotland from Arsenal.

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