Ally McCoist has lamented the decision to send Rangers’ Robin Pröpper off, just 12 minutes into the club’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final against Athletic Club.
The defender was shown a yellow card for a challenge on Iñaki Williams on the edge of the area, before VAR called Istvan Kovacs to the pitchside monitor to review a potential denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
Kovacs did not need long to upgrade the warning to an instant red card, dismissing the 31-year-old Dutchman in a decision that was blasted by TNT Sports’ Ally McCoist as “absolute nonsense”.
“By the letter of the law, it’s probably the correct decision, but you ask anybody that’s played the game at any level whatsoever if that should be a red card and the answer emphatically would be no,” he explained.
“I actually think it’s a lack of common sense from the officials. They’ll say they’re going by the rules and the laws of the game and I get all that, we all understand it. By that interpretation, he’s made the correct decision, but [in] common sense terms it’s wrong!”
He continued: “If that’s inside the box, he doesn’t get sent off. How daft is that? You’ve effectively got two different laws. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense!”