Var Review – John Beaton Correct to Award Celtic Late Penalty at Motherwell

The eagerly awaited final VAR Review of an incredible Scottish Premiership season has been released this evening as Head of Referees Willie Collum gives his verdict on a serious of controversial decisions involving Celtic, Hearts, Motherwell and the Rangers…

Running through the non-Celtic decisions quickly, Hearts should have had a penalty against Motherwell for the trip at the edge of the area but the angles available meant that referee Steven McLean was unconvinced that the Motherwell foot wasn’t planted before the theatrical fall from a Hearts player looking for a penalty.

Another penalty was denied to Hearts as the ball stuck above the t-shirt line. Motherwell’s good fortune couldn’t last forever but they’d survive a third penalty scare before one went the other way.

▶️ Click below to watch the latest Scottish Football VAR Review show, which includes several incidents, including why Alistair Johnston's tackle on Mikey Moore in the Old Firm clash was not a red card ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/A4Ny2aZyiU

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) May 29, 2026

Two decisions went against the Rangers in their 3-1 Glasgow Derby defeat at Celtic Park. Let’s cover them now to get them out the way. The Alistair Johnston yellow card for the follow through on Mikey Moore was the CORRECT decision while Jack Butland had a clear sight of Yang’s shot while Benjamin Nygren did NOT block his dive. So the decision to award the Celtic equaliser was also correct, according to Head of Referees Willie Collum.

Hearts probably suffered from the lack of angles available for VAR to show Steven McLean who decided to back his own judgement by not giving Hearts the spot kick at Fir Park.  It could have been a significant moment but so too could the absolute open goal sitter that Lawrence Shankland missed in that same match.

▶️ Click below to watch the latest Scottish Football VAR Review show, which includes several incidents, including Benjamin Nygren's penalty appeal for Celtic against Hibernian ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/pPaiWsjVj8

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) May 29, 2026

We’ve covered the two big calls in the Glasgow Derby but before that Celtic were denied a penalty against Hibs when Benjamin Nygren was forcibly barged off the field with a two arm push to the chest with the ball still in play. The VAR team spent too long looking at the handbags that followed the incident. In the same game they couldn’t establish if there was handball for the Hibs goal so it was allowed to stand.

▫️ Nicholson's handball against Celtic
▫️ Hearts' Kyziridis denied Fir Park penalty
▫️ Johnston's tackle on Moore in Old Firm
▫️ Nygren's penalty claim at Easter Road

Watch the latest Scottish Football VAR Review show ⤵️https://t.co/Bm5cq58nff

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) May 29, 2026

And so to the Motherwell v Celtic game where the feeling from VAR was that Motherwell keeper got the ball before going through Daizen Maeda’s back. A strange conclusion to reach as he clearly hit Daizen before the ball. Collum though thought that it wasn’t a penalty with his least convincing explanation of the show.

Perhaps it had something to do with the penalty that was awarded to Celtic in the closing stages of the match for a handball by Motherwell’s Hearts supporting defender Sam Nicholson. VAR led by Andrew Dallas reckoned it was a penalty, they called John Beaton to the monitor and he agreed after confirming with Dallas that the ball had hit the Motherwell player’s arm which was in an unnatural position so a clear cut decision of a penalty was the verdict.

If this had happened on the second game of the season rather than the second last then there would have been little or no debate about it. And bizarrely the notion Celtic should not get a penalty at Fir Park because Hearts didn’t get theirs is still a hot topic weeks after the incident in the East and West coast cousin community.

For the record here’s the audio was released via The VAR Review this evening between on field referee John Beaton and Andrew Dallas in the VAR room from the STONEWALL penalty for handball for Celtic against Motherwell at Fir Park…

Ball in the penalty area? ✅
Arm in an unnatural position? ✅
Ball hits hand? ✅

Scottish football meltdown? ✅ pic.twitter.com/GQNWczfhQL

— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) May 29, 2026

VAR: “Do you agree the arm is in an unnatural position? The arm is at shoulder height.”

AVAR: “Agreed.”

VAR: “The ball comes from a throw-in. For me, it’s a penalty kick and an on-field review. Do you agree?”

AVAR: “Yep.”

VAR: “John, it’s Andrew…”

AVAR: “John, it’s Andrew. Can you hear me?”

Referee: “Yes, I can.”

AVAR: “John, we’re recommending an on-field review for a potential handball penalty kick. Please make a signal to come to the screen.”

VAR: “John, you got me? I’m on Sean’s comms, can you hear me?”

Referee: “I’ve got you now mate…”

VAR: “I’m going to show you it on a loop, John. The ball comes from the throw-in, the Motherwell player jumps, his arm is above shoulder height.”

Referee: “OK… and it definitely hits his arm?”

VAR: “It definitely hits the arm. We’ll pause it at point of contact.”

Referee: “OK, penalty kick. I’m awarding a penalty kick, no sanction.”

Can someone please explain why there was a meltdown in the first place? It was clearly handball. There’s actually a definitive image via SNS Photos that proves that VAR got this one 100% correct. That wasn’t available at the time but it conclusively proved that the VAR team got this one correct. To think that John Beaton needed Police protection for making the correct call is mind boggling.

You could have just used the picture of the ball actually hitting his hand

Which kinda contradicts his whole ‘it categorically didn’t hit my hand’ stance https://t.co/7wGfpOavb9 pic.twitter.com/UAEySaoiQh

— Kitson (@Kitson67) May 29, 2026

Here’s the latest VAR Review with Willie Collum providing the insight and the reasoning for the various decisions and pointing out the ones VAR got wrong…

READ THIS – WHY CELTIC SUPPORTERS SHOULD SIGN UP FOR THE CELTIC SEASON TICKET ALLIANCE.

HAVE YOUR SAY – Join the Celtic conversation in our comments section below…

Quick Tip – Add Celticshorts.com as your ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the Celtic content you value the most. It takes just a few seconds and you’ll notice the difference straight away! – Click HERE….Hail Hail!