Celtic fans deserve answers: Penrice’s red-card escape is a disgrace
A boot to the ribs, no booking and no on-field VAR review: Hackett’s verdict demands an explanation from Scotland’s officials.
Phillip Cooney 
Celtic fans need no lecture about refereeing standards after James Penrice escaped even a booking for his high challenge on Aberdeen’s Afeez Aremu.
A boot above waist height. Contact around the ribs. No yellow card.
For me, that is a red. The absence of even a caution makes an appalling decision harder to stomach.
Celtic fans deserve answers over Penrice escape
The Ibrox club reached the League Cup final with a 1–0 win at Hampden. Yet Penrice stayed on before helping create Ryan Naderi’s winner.
That does not prove Aberdeen would have won against ten men. However, it makes the failure to punish his challenge hugely significant.
Former FIFA referee Keith Hackett delivered a blunt assessment, quoted in the Daily Record:
“That was clearly serious foul play, and should have seen a red card produced instantly.”
He also asked: “Why was there no intervention by VAR?”
Precisely.
Referee Ryan Lee produced no card. John Beaton’s VAR involvement brought no on-field review. What, exactly, did the officials consider acceptable here?
Under IFAB’s serious foul play rule, a challenge that endangers an opponent’s safety merits dismissal. Height alone does not settle every incident. Nevertheless, a raised boot connecting with an opponent’s torso demands proper scrutiny.
Patterns of assistance demand scrutiny
Alan Morrison’s 2024 “Patterns of Assistance” study examined penalties, red cards and their impact, using public data and independent refereeing reviews. He argued that the Ibrox club benefited disproportionately.
Crucially, that concerned league matches, not this cup tie. Moreover, his November 2025 follow-up said the pattern no longer obviously persisted. Neither analysis establishes a deliberate pro-Ibrox agenda here.
But supporters’ distrust cannot simply be waved away. We have already examined Collum’s admissions over penalty errors and the questions surrounding Celtic’s VAR explanations.
Scottish refereeing keeps supplying reasons for that distrust.
Publish the reasoning. Explain the red-card threshold. Account for the failure.
A boot to the ribs, and not even a booking. Calling that shocking barely covers it.
Key takeaways
- Penrice escaped even a caution; I believe his challenge merited red.
- Hackett called it serious foul play.
- The SFA should explain the referee and VAR decisions.
