Scotland's referees chief last night admitted Scottish Cup semi-final whistlers Steven McLean and Alan Muir called it wrong on Sunday - and revealed video technology could be introduced in Scotland to rule on powderkeg incidents.

 

John Fleming lifted the lid on the plan hours before Celtic announced they were writing to the SFA over the Hampden howlers they believe cost them the chance of a domestic Treble.

The Parkhead club were left incensed after McLean and his assistant Muir missed Inverness defender Josh Meekings using his hand to keep out a goal-bound Leigh Griffiths' header.

The incident happened just before half-time with Celtic leading 1-0 and would have earned Meekings a red card had the infringement been spotted.

But Ronny Deila's side eventually lost 3-2, with the officials' decisions continuing to rankle among Celtic players and fans.

Fleming, however, strongly defended the match officials while opening the door for video technology to be introduced north of the border.

He said. "I don't think there was anyone in the ground who would have thought it was 100% a penalty and sending off until they had seen the replay.

"When you watch it again on TV you can see clearly that it has a handball, no question about that.

"But that is most apparent when the replay is slowed down and you watch it again.

"What we do is speak to the officials involved, we take their view on what happened, we look at a freeze frame on the incident in question and we then look at their positioning.

"Alan was a very short distance from the incident when it happened. For him to see properly when the ball was headed goalwards, he would have had to see through the head of the player [Meekings].

"So I can see why in real time it looked as though the ball hit his face.

"Steven could see through the gap in play as the game unfolded but there was a millisecond, a click of the fingers when his view was not 100%.

In a situation like that when you cannot trust entirely what has happened you can't give a penalty or a red-card.

"You need to be absolutely certain and if you're not then you shouldn't give it."

Stopping the game to watch a re-run of the incident would have given a clear insight into the infringement and the introduction of the required technology to facilitate such an event will be on the agenda next week.

Football's technical advisory panel (TAP) and the football advisory board (FAB)- of which Scotland are represented as part of the home nations - will convene in London next week as football takes a deeper look at the possibility of introducing mechanics that would eradicate such errors of judgement.

Fleming said: "Dutch football ran a pilot last season with video technology and next week when the International Football Association Board convene it is one of the topics that is on the agenda.

"There will be an exploration into the potential of introducing video technology going forward.

"The SFA would back the introduction of it but it is something that we would have to trial and analyse results. There are some instances which are factual - a handball, an offside, a ball crossing the line - but there are other situations where you could have ten officials watch the same incident 10 times and still not agree.

"People always trot out the line about replays in tennis but I have never seen a genuine replay involving a tennis game. What I see is a virtual line and a shadow. Football is totally different.

"People demand to see real defenders, real goalkeepers - the same incident replayed but at a much slower speed.

"In cases such as Sundays it would then have been obvious that a penalty and a red-card should have been awarded.

"But there are things that the naked eye will never see and if there is ever the introduction of a hawk-eye then we need to trust the technology.

"Although it is something of interest there are certain aspects of the game involving tackles or red or yellow cards that will carry a level of ambiguity and the decision will always come down to the opinion and perception of the referee."

In their statement released last night, said they were under an obligation from their fans to ask for an explanation of the officials' performance.

They said: "First and foremost we absolutely congratulate Inverness Caledonian Thistle on reaching the Scottish Cup final. They are a fantastic club and reaching the final is a great achievement.

"However, given the level of reaction from our supporters and across football, we are duty bound to seek an understanding of what actually happened.

"We have not been given any other specific explanation so far and this is simply to understand the circumstances of what went on and why such an obvious error was made."