Graeme Souness has blasted Chris Sutton’s commentary for Sky Sports during Rangers and Celtic’s epic 3-3 draw as “biased”.
The Ibrox legend watched the pulsating derby on TV and admits he was perplexed by Sutton’s calling of incidents in the game.
Sutton was furious when referee John Beaton was called to the VAR screen after booking Rangers striker Fabio Silva for going down in the box under a challenge from Alistair Johnston.
The man in the middle overruled himself after seeing video evidence that the Portuguese was brought to the floor by contact to his knee from the Canadian international.
And Souness feels there could be something more sinister at play in terms of Sutton’s influence over referees.
The Ibrox and Liverpool legend told talkSport: “It’s 100 per cent a penalty. And I’ll tell you, Silva is a diver. He is a diver and he’s embarrassing himself. I’m sure they’re talking about it up in Scotland but that was a penalty. The defender cut him across the knees with his dangling foot. It’s a penalty, he’s brought him down.
“I’m reluctant to in strong on Chris Sutton because he turned up at a charity event for me two weeks ago. We chatted together and he’s funny. He did a bit for me and I thank him again for that. It was a dinner in Glasgow for the DEBRA charity.
“But I can’t believe how biased Chris is when he’s talking about Rangers. He was saying, ‘It’s embarrassing, it’s not a penalty’. It was a penalty! It’s easily a penalty. It’s not even a discussion to have.
“And I’m wondering, do VAR listen to the commentary during a game? Because I’m thinking Chris is going that strong here, he’s trying to influence whoever could be listening in the VAR studio.
“VAR in Scotland is different, it’s not at Stockley Park, is it? They’ve got their own VAR there. Do they listen to the commentary? I thought Chris has gone that mad on this, he’s trying to influence someone in VAR.”
