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McAvennie reveals 'first thing that must be done' after Daizen Maeda's Celtic red card
Daizen Maeda’s red card for Celtic against Atletico Madrid shows that referees want to be “bigger than the players”.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Hoops and Scotland striker Frank McAvennie slammed the officials’ “embarrassing” decision to dismiss the Japanese international in the 6-0 defeat on Tuesday (7 November).
Maeda was initially cautioned with a yellow for a challenge on Mario Hermoso but was shown red after a lengthy VAR review involving a contentious freeze frame of the tackle.
Brendan Rodgers was fuming after the defeat and claimed the red card was “undeserving” and that VAR was making the sport a “computer game”.
McAvennie was baffled as to why the referees relied on a misleading still image but criticised them for making the game “like a theatre”.
“I’m going to be honest, I think Celtic looked amateurish, I don’t think they would have won it anyway with the way Atletico played,” he told Football Insider.
“You could see they were up for it before the sending off, but the sending off was an absolute disgrace, an absolute joke.
“VAR is ruining our game. It’s hard enough playing with 11 men, but when you go down to 10 it’s harder.
“I feel sorry for Maeda because he’s all in, the guy kicked the ball of his crown jewels! But did you see Hermoso rolling about? It was embarrassing.
“The first thing that has to be done is that freeze frame has got to go.
“It looks as if his studs are up, but he didn’t catch the guy. It wasn’t a yellow in my day, but in today’s it’s a yellow.
“The referees want to be bigger than the players, they want to be celebrities. They think they’re better than the players and it’s embarrassing.
“It’s like a theatre for me. It’s meant to be clear and obvious, but [Maeda’s tackle] wasn’t clear or obvious.”
In other news, Celtic fans stunned as controversial Daizen Maeda footage analysed.