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Celtic's controversial penalty decision against Motherwell has sparked outrage, with claims of referee error. Hearts, now wary of their upcoming match against Celtic, need to avoid defeat to secure the title.
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Having viewed the incident that led to Celtic being awarded a spot-kick against Motherwell more often than weâve put on socks, Football Daily still canât understand how referee John Beaton arrived at his decision. Of course weâve seen all the freeze-frame stills on Social Media Disgrace that suggest the ball probably did hit Sam Nicholsonâs forehead-adjacent paw, but even then it doesnât automatically follow that it was a foul. The power and trajectory with which the ball was sent back out over the touchline was clearly generated by the Motherwell defenderâs big slab-head and not some overarm serve borrowed from the volleyball court. More crucially, what has also become abundantly clear in the ensuing frenzy of hysterical debate over whether or not Nicholson handled the ball, is that in initially declining to award Celtic a penalty the referee definitively did not make a clear-and-obvious error. It was not until he was sent to his screen by the curtain-twitchers in McStockley Park that Beaton messed up, by electing to re-referee an incident heâd already adjudicated in a perfectly satisfactory manner.
So controversial even English grandees such as Gary Lineker and Jeff Stelling couldnât haud their wheesht, Beatonâs decision has been labelled in some quarters as the most controversial in Scottish Fitba history. While Football Daily would argue it isnât even in the top three most controversial calls weâve seen made in Celticâs favour since last Friday, the ramifications could obviously be seismic in terms of the title race. âA horrendous decision that has once again embarrassed Scottish football,â thundered Ally McCoist on TalkSport. âIâm just trying to think logically how he would make that decision. But equally, on VAR guys, are we trying to tell each other that is a clear-and-obvious error? Come on! And by the way, exactly on that spot on Saturday night, Hearts should have been given a penalty.â
Having seen off Falkirk at Tynecastleâs final match of the season in just enough time to watch the Fir Park fiasco unfold, league leaders Hearts ended what might have been an evening of celebration on a massive downer. âWhen you heard Celtic had a 96th-minute penalty going to VAR, you just assume they get it,â seethed their head coach Derek McInnes. âItâs disgusting. Weâre up against it, weâre up against everybody. I donât think itâs a penalty. Itâs so poor and it looks as though [Celtic] have been given it. They have been very fortunate.â Unsurprisingly, his view was not shared by Celtic head coach Martin OâNeill, who was not prepared to just concede his side had got extremely lucky. âI have seen it back very, very briefly ⊠itâs a handball,â said the man who has previously been extremely vocal in his criticism of VAR for being âdebilitatingâ and an âinsultâ to refereesâ judgement. Hearts now need to avoid defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday to seize the title in a showdown for the ages. Itâs arguably the biggest Scottish game in a generation and recent history suggests the main post-match talking points will be about everything but the Fitba.
Celtic was awarded a penalty against Motherwell after a handball incident involving Sam Nicholson, which many believe was incorrectly adjudicated by referee John Beaton.
Hearts' coach Derek McInnes expressed his frustration, calling the decision 'disgusting' and claiming that it was not a penalty.
The penalty decision has significant implications for Hearts, as they must avoid defeat against Celtic to secure the league title in their upcoming match.
Celtic's coach Martin OâNeill stated that he believes the handball was clear and criticized VAR for undermining referees' judgment.

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30 April 2026: âLet me start at the outset by confirming straight away, for those who maybe want to say something else or write something else, that of course Iran will be participating at the Fifa World Cup 2026. And of course, Iran will play in the United States of America. The reason for that is simple, because we have to unite. We have to bring people togetherâ â Big Gianni Infantino reiterated his belief that Iran will take part in the Geopolitics World Cup when speaking at a Fifa congress, an event in Canada that Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian Football Federation, was denied from attending by Canadian authorities at Torontoâs Pearson airport.
14 May 2026: âTomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we will have a decisive meeting with Fifa. They must give us guarantees, because the visa issue has still not been resolved. We have not received any account from the other side regarding who has been granted visas. No visas have been issued yetâ â Mehdi Taj claims no visas have yet been issued for the Iranian national team to participate at the GWC.

Mehdi Taj (centre) attends a farewell ceremony for the national team in Tehran on Wednesday. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
âIf Southampton wanted this whole Spygate stuff to get kicked into the long grass (where one assumes there is at least one Saints âinternâ), maybe they should have gone bigger. If theyâd sent (at least) 115 spies, it would take years to sort out, if everâ â Derek McGee.
âThe whole âspygateâ saga has been completely blown out of proportion by the media, and exacerbated by Hellberg manipulating the situation to try to gain a psychological advantage for his team. He was quoted saying that the Southampton analyst was caught early in the training session, which by implication suggests that little or no data was actually gathered, a fact borne out by Middlesbroughâs total domination of the match at the Riverside. Admittedly Southampton were in the wrong to have a member of staff located at Middlesbroughâs training ground. However, the cry of âcheatâ is little worse than players adopting the âdark artsâ at the behest of their managers during a match; professional fouls, diving in the penalty area, trying to get an opposition player booked or sent off, scoring a goal by using the hand (as Portsmouth did against Southampton at Fratton Park), or, to use a cricketing term âsledgingâ your opponent. Hellberg is also using spygate to distract from Middlesbroughâs drop in form during the past two months, the result of which is that they finished fourth in the table behind Southampton. Man-up and move-on Middlesbroughâ â Andrew Hayward (and no others).
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Our sister emailâs latest edition is out now, and focuses on how Eintracht Frankfurt have the Frauen-Bundesligaâs big two clubs, and the Champions League, in their sights.

Eintracht Frankfurt are aiming to overhaul Bayern and Wolfsburgâs duopoly in Germany. Photograph: Alex Grimm/Uefa/Getty Images
Wrap your ears (and eyes!) around the latest episode of Football Weekly, in which Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, Will Unwin and Ewan Murray discuss the title races in England and Scotland.