Hugh Keevins blasts 'ill-informed accusations' after Rangers controversy

Hugh Keevins has hit back over “ill-informed accusations” suggesting football is “rigged” after Rangers were the victims of controversy in their defeat to Celtic.

Rangers were extremely hard done by in their Scottish League Cup final defeat to Celtic when they weren’t awarded a penalty for a foul on Vaclav Cerny despite VAR being in operation.

Philippe Clement’s side went on to lose the Old Firm on penalties with claims that the game should be replayed due to the error made.

Supporters were quick to accuse the officials for their involvement in the clash but Keevins has hit back at the accusations made towards the integrity of the game.

“If some supporters want to believe the game is rigged then that’s too bad. Football has to rise above unsubstantiated suspicion and ill-informed accusations,” Keevins said via the Daily Record (22 December).

“If I thought officials were willing to compromise their integrity and jeopardise their careers by fixing the outcome of games to suit themselves I don’t think I’d waste my money going to watch football. But I don’t expect to see any empty seats at Ibrox for Rangers’ first competitive day at work in the new year.”

Rangers have every right to feel hard done by

There is no hiding away from it, the error was shameful and the fact VAR is in operation and the error is still made says a lot about the standards of officiating, not only in Scotland but across football as a whole.

Rangers should have been awarded a penalty and that could have proved the difference in the encounter and we could be sitting here discussing how big of a win it was for the Gers.

With that said, Rangers can take a lot of pride from their performance in the game which was much improved from the showings earlier in the season but quite frankly, it counts for little.

The defeat leaves the Gers with three further opportunities at gaining silverware although an eight-point gap in the league makes any success through that mean unlikely, leaving the Scottish Cup and Europa League as the two remaining competitions.

If Rangers can maintain the level of performance from recent weeks going forward, they have every chance of achieving some kind of success although they will need some support from match officials who essentially cost them victory at Hampden Park.

In other Rangers news, one player has been mooted for an exit from Ibrox.

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