Anti-Rangers nonsense as Kent penalty dismissed

There’s been a little bit of nonsense in the press and forums about Rangers’ penalty v Red Star, where Ryan Kent won the Famous a spot kick despite not a single player apparently appealing for a penalty, aside Kent himself.

The outrage in some sections of the media suggesting it wasn’t a penalty (or was not in the box) really is why VAR is so absolutely wonderful, and justifies the technology completely.

That the assistant referees were the only ones to see a legitimate penalty aside Kent himself demonstrates how valuable it is, and how players’ reactions are far from definitive when it comes to the right outcome.

Kent was absolutely incensed, 100% that it was a penalty, and thanks to VAR, he was proven absolutely correct. He was clearly tripped in the box by Slavoljub Srnić, in an honest error but a foul nonetheless.

And correct us if we’re wrong but a foul in the box is a penalty, even if no one else saw it.

THAT’S WHY WE HAVE VAR!

The tech did the justice, and a penalty was rightly awarded.

Had it been in Rangers’ box, we’d be gutted of course but we can’t argue with the decision.

We didn’t argue with the decision to award Red Star one because Jack clearly fouled, and we can only thank Greegsy for bailing the side out.

And that’s what VAR is for. It gets to the right outcome infinitely more times than just the ref’s ad-hoc judgement, and we suffered it in the Jack incident as much as benefited from Kent.

That’s justice, and that’s a fair playing field.