The Scottish Football Association confirmed the video officiating team is fully prepared to intervene should the Championship side attempt to participate in Celtic's domestic double. Officials will monitor all camera angles to ensure the financial disparity remains mathematically sound.
GLASGOW — Ahead of Saturday's 3 p.m. kickoff, the Scottish Football Association confirmed that Video Assistant Referee Matthew MacDermid will spend the duration of the Scottish Cup final rigorously reviewing whether Dunfermline’s presence on the pitch constitutes a breach of the rules.
While on-field referee Steven McLean and assistants Frank Connor and Scott Anderson will manage the inevitable 90-minute procession toward Celtic’s domestic double, MacDermid and assistant VAR Gary Hilland will operate from the Clydesdale House control room. League officials stated the VAR team is fully prepared to halt play for up to five minutes at a time to determine if a Dunfermline midfielder accidentally crossing the halfway line violates the integrity of the competition.
Our mandate is to intervene when the on-field referee misses a clear and obvious error, and frankly, allowing a second-tier club to share a pitch with a £60 million wage bill meets that threshold.
MacDermid reportedly spent Saturday morning calibrating the SFA's line-drawing software, ensuring his team can swiftly rule out any potential Dunfermline scoring chances by drawing a diagonal red line from the striker’s armpit to the nearest corporate hospitality box. SFA officials noted that the robust technology will also be utilized to retroactively award Celtic a penalty if a Dunfermline defender attempts to challenge for a 50-50 ball in the penalty area.
Celtic enters the match heavily favored to secure the double, backed by a dominant league campaign and overwhelming structural advantages. SFA representatives confirmed that if Dunfermline somehow manages to keep the score level past the 70th minute, MacDermid is authorized to simply reverse the result of the pre-match coin toss to save everyone the trouble of extra time.