The Ibrox side were furious when ref Ryan Lee waved away claims that Moore had been unfairly scythed down by defender Kerr
A close up angle of Cammy Kerr’s challenge on Mikey Moore(Image: Sky Sports)
New close-up footage has emerged showing that Cammy Kerr’s unpunished challenge on Mikey Moore WAS outside the box.
But Rangers have been told why VAR was powerless to get involved, even though David Dickinson did think it was a free-kick.
The Ibrox side came from two goals down against 10-man Livingston to take a point from the game but were furious when ref Ryan Lee waved away claims that Moore had been unfairly scythed down by defender Kerr.
Replays showed there was contact and the player didn’t win the ball, and Sky Sports confirmed during the coverage of the game that Dickinson in the VAR room had deemed it a foul – and much of the six-minute delay was instead due to uncertainty over the location of the contact.
Rangers boss Danny Rohl fumed at the non-award after the game, and it was hotly debated by pundits too – with Chris Sutton and Kris Boyd’s unusual role reversal demonstrating just how contentious the decision was.
As the Sky pundits pored over the footage, anchor Eilidh Barbour explained that regulations prevent VAR from intervening to award free-kicks; it can only rule on potential penalties. And since Lee hadn’t made any decision, there was nothing for them to overturn.
In effect, it means that had VAR ruled the contact was in the box, there would have been a pitchside review for a possible penalty. Since Dickinson deemed it outside, he was powerless.
In support of that explanation, Sky have shared two screenshots which appear show the first contact was made outside the box.
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While IFAB rules do provide some wiggle room when it comes to contact being initiated outside the area and continuing into the box, but in practice that is mostly applied to shirt pulls and rarely comes into consideration with direct challenges.
Ibrox icon Boyd, speaking in the Sky Sports studio, thought that explanation was fair enough. He said: “From the point of contact you can see he is clearly outside of the box.
“Once they decide it’s not a DOGSO (Denial of Goal Scoring Opportunity), it’s the correct decision.
“Had it have been pulling and continued into the box, it would have been given as a penalty. Had it been on the line, it would have been a penalty.”