{"id":440454,"date":"2026-02-23T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440454\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:14:10","slug":"martin-oneill-slams-var-as-celtic-boss-rages-theyve-been-doing-this-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440454\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill slams VAR as Celtic boss rages ‘they’ve been doing this for years’"},"content":{"rendered":"

O’Neill was angry VAR intervened to send off Auston Trusty \u2013 but didn’t get involved to award his team a spot-kick<\/p>\n

18:38, 22 Feb 2026Updated 19:31, 22 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill <\/p>\n

Martin O’Neill slammed VAR meddling after Celtic<\/a>\u2019s damaging defeat to Hibs.<\/p>\n

The Parkhead boss had his say after two huge second-half calls which turned the tide against his side in their 2-1 loss.<\/p>\n

With the game locked at 1-1 and less than 20 minutes remaining, Auston Trusty<\/a> was red-carded after a clash in the box with visiting midfielder Jamie McGrath.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill<\/a> says referee Matthew MacDermid told him after the game he had intended just to speak to the two players before VAR official Grant Irvine called him to the monitor.<\/p>\n

Trusty was adjudged to have committed an act of violent conduct by MacDermid after he reviewed the footage and Celtic angst only increased when, almost immediately, Liam Scales went down in the box at a corner after a tug on the shirt from Hibs defender Jack Iredale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Protests on the pitch from the Celtic players including the Irishman were waved away by MacDermid with Irvine not getting involved on that occasion.<\/p>\n

On the red card incident, O\u2019Neill said: \u201cWell, I\u2019ve just had a word with the referee. He said he was just going to have a word with the two players, first of all. Then I think VAR intervened and said it was violent conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was put to O\u2019Neill that was a case of re-refeering the game and he replied: \u201cThey\u2019ve been doing it for years, so that\u2019s not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill them moved onto the penalty incident involving Scales and said: \u201cThe referee, I think his words were, he didn\u2019t hold onto him long enough, but it seems a wee bit strange. You’re grabbing someone\u2019s shirt as he\u2019s making a move to get the ball and holding onto his shirt. Some years ago it was a penalty. But VAR, they\u2019ve passed that one on, so there we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill spoke with Trusty immediately after the match and, although the intervention of VAR played a huge role, the boss admits it was a wrong move in the current climate from his centre back.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to him. At the end of it all, you can\u2019t do this. If that\u2019s the rules now, it doesn\u2019t matter if someone is holding onto you, in an attempt to breakaway, you can\u2019t thrust down in the manner in which he did to get away. So I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s violent conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Auston<\/p>\n

Auston Trusty after being sent off(Image: Mark Runnacles\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Trusty\u2019s red card means that he will now be suspended for Sunday\u2019s Premiership clash against Rangers at Ibrox.<\/p>\n

Last month, Celtic launched an appeal when the American international was ordered-off during the 2-2 draw with Hearts at Tynecastle.<\/p>\n

However, given the nature of the offence and the explanations which O\u2019Neill was given, the manager doesn\u2019t not believe an appeal will be made on this one.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cPersonally I wouldn\u2019t have thought so. The referee has explained to me that\u2019s what VAR said. It was violent conduct, so I don\u2019t think anyone will change their minds on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the red card and the penalty incident was devastating for Celtic as they had the momentum at that stage of the match and were pushing hard to get the goal which would have put them 2-1 in front in the closing stages.<\/p>\n

Instead, they succumbed to the same scoreline and O\u2019Neill said: \u201cWe played some really fantastic football. We went in 1-1 at half time and we should probably have been in front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sending off has a big affect. We had the momentum at that stage. We had some chances second half and if you don\u2019t put them away there\u2019s a possibility at the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O’Neill was angry VAR intervened to send off Auston Trusty \u2013 but didn’t get involved to award his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[40166,2817,59,13718,30905,8058,101,56,54,55,50535],"class_list":{"0":"post-440454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-auston-trusty","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-hibernian-fc","12":"tag-martin-oneill","13":"tag-scottish-premiership","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-var"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}