The Scottish FA's key match incident panel has ruled that referee John Beaton was wrong to award Celtic a stoppage-time penalty away to Motherwell last week — a decision that proved decisive in the William Hill Premiership title race.

Celtic were drawing 2-2 deep into added time at Fir Park when VAR Andrew Dallas flagged his belief that Motherwell winger Sam Nicholson had handled the ball while contesting an aerial duel with Celtic defender Auston Trusty. Beaton consulted the pitchside monitor for around 20 seconds before pointing to the spot. Kelechi Iheanacho converted in the 99th minute to give Celtic a 3-2 victory.

Title race implications

The result had profound consequences for the championship. Celtic's win meant they needed only to beat Hearts by any margin on the final day to claim the title, whereas a draw at Motherwell would have required a three-goal victory. Hearts ultimately finished two points behind Celtic, with the KMI panel's ruling adding further weight to the Jambos' sense of injustice.

This was also the second major decision in the closing stages of the season that the panel subsequently deemed incorrect — and both went against Hearts. Earlier in the run-in, referee Steven McLean had declined to award Hearts a penalty at Motherwell while the match stood at 1-1, despite VAR Greg Aitken indicating that Alexandros Kyziridis had been fouled by Tawanda Maswanhise. That call, too, was later judged to have been wrong.

Fierce reactions from both camps