Celtic have released a statement, following Auston Trusty’s red card appeal being upheld by the SFA.
The USA international was dismissed last Sunday after making contact with Jamie McGrath’s arm, which was deemed violent conduct by Grant Irvine on VAR at Clydesdale House.
Now, after the appeal was rejected, Trusty’s club has responded, calling for an ‘urgent review’ into the way VAR is being operated in the Scottish Premiership.
In full, the statement said, “With regards to the outcome of today’s hearing regarding Auston Trusty, the club provides the following update:”We are hugely disappointed at today’s decision, which will now result in Auston Trusty being suspended for three matches after an “arm to arm” contact as he looked to release himself from being held prior to the ball coming into play – the kind of incident which features in games across the country week in week out.”The match audio demonstrates that the referee saw the incident clearly. Immediately following the incident, the referee said: “It’s nothing I’m just going to speak to them” in terms of no further action being required.
“In discussions with Celtic Manager Martin O’Neill after the match, this was something he also confirmed.
“However, VAR again decided to intervene to ‘re-referee’ an initial decision which had been made.
“While we await the written judgement, this and other decisions in the match and in other recent games demonstrate a serious issue with VAR and its current deployment which needs urgently reviewed.
Because of the rejected appeal, Trusty will miss Celtic’s next three Premiership games against Rangers, Aberdeen and Motherwell, respectively.