This is a little bit off topic, and it’s a more abstract entry than usual, but it is inspired by a valued member of the Ibrox Noise team who observed something extremely pointed during the Switzerland NI match in which we were scoping out Steven Davis and other Rangers ties such as Cedric Itten and Jordan Jones.

VAR was called into play after a contentious offside ruled out a stunning goal for the Swiss, bringing the technology into use to point out an issue.

The curious thing about this goal was that while the replays for the viewer demonstrated that Xherdan Shaqiri was in an offside position when the shot was struck, ergo interfering with play, nevertheless that was not what the offside call was made on.

The photographic proof, which provided the VAR verdict, showed that another former Bear, Kevin Mbabu was fractionally offside when the ball was lobbed forwards from defence, and that was much earlier than the final shot.

Now, the concern we have is the number of replies which actually saw this match, and disputed the very photographic evidence which clearly said ‘VAR offside’ as Mbabu made his move, rejecting it, claiming the offside was for Shaqiri, was in fact a deeply worrying trend. It demonstrated that even hard evidence and ‘plain as the nose on your face’ presentation isn’t actually enough any more, and some people will disagree or object to literally anything.

This has wide-reaching implications, especially in court, where Joe and Jane Punter are given the evidence on a jury, and if something as simple as VAR is disagreed with on this level, that the viewers watching can actually disagree with a presented fact, then can a defendant trust them potentially with their life?

The VAR call was for Mbabu, but many of the watching punters decided that was just wrong and it was for Shaqiri.

Now, Shaqiri was offside, and he was interfering with play, and it’s correct that had Mbabu been onside the goal would have been ruled out on Shaqiri, yes, but that was NOT what this one was invalidated over.

But there we still had quite a few fans scoffing over this telling us despite VAR announcing Mbabu offside and ruling the goal out, no, it was for Shaqiri.

Can these people be trusted in society if they simply ignore facts they don’t like or agree with?

I wouldn’t want them on my jury, I will say that.