Celtic issue statement after SFA dismiss Auston Trusty appeal

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·24 February 2026

Celtic issue statement after SFA dismiss Auston Trusty appeal

Celtic have issued a strong statement in the wake of the SFA’s decision to reject the club’s appeal against Auston Trusty’s red card. With around 19 minutes to play, Trusty was shown red for slapping away Jamie McGrath’s hands as the players prepared for a Celtic corner.

Referee Matthew MacDermid was on hand and appeared to be readying himself to speak with both players before it flashed up that VAR was looking at a possible red card for violent conduct. Replays suggest that Trusty forcibly hit McGrath’s hand away and the Irishman made the most of the contact.

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In a statement on Tuesday evening, Celtic slammed the re-refereeing of the game and called for a review of the operation of VAR in Scotland.

With regards to the outcome of today’s hearing regarding Auston Trusty, the club provides the following update: We are hugely disappointed at today’s decision, which will now result in Auston Trusty being suspended for three matches after an “arm to arm” contact as he looked to release himself from being held prior to the ball coming into play – the kind of incident which features in games across the country week in week out. The match audio demonstrates that the referee saw the incident clearly. Immediately following the incident, the referee said: “It’s nothing I’m just going to speak to them” in terms of no further action being required. In discussions with Celtic Manager Martin O’Neill after the match this was something he also confirmed. However, VAR again decided to intervene to ‘re-referee’ an initial decision which had been made. While we await the written judgement, this and other decisions in the match and in other recent games demonstrate a serious issue with VAR and its current deployment which needs urgently reviewed.

Celtic appear not to have passed comment on the decision not to award a spot kick after Jack Iredale appeared to have hold of Liam Scales. The Irish Internationalist remonstrated with the match officials to no avail as VAR cleared the altercation.