The Scottish FA’s head of refereeing operations has revealed broadcasters will be turned away when looking for still images of retrospective offside decisions.

Crawford Allan insists the SFA have learned a lesson following the furore that ensued after a controversial decision during the most recent Celtic vs Rangers match.

The spotlight shone on VAR after an Alistair Johnston handball inside Celtic’s penalty area, with the defender under pressure from Abdallah Sima. Willie Collum reviewed the incident but advised on-field referee Nick Walsh to continue play.

Around 15 minutes after the incident, Sky Sports moved to clear up quickly mounting controversy by highlighting Sima was in an offside position in the attacking phase of play [APP], hence the handball incident didn't matter. It's understood the broadcaster requested images with the relevant lines drawn from the SFA.

However, Allan believes such transparency only causes further backlash rather than tempering anger.

“We were trying to be as transparent and open as possible to assist the understanding of people,” said the 56-year-old. “But, for the noise that it created, it’s like, ‘Well, why would we do that again?’.

“We’ll stick to what we did at the time and then we will report the facts. I think that’s a lesson learned.

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“Initially, yes, we thought it did provide clarity. But clearly, hindsight has shown that it didn’t. We did it with the best of intentions. We were trying to assist. But at the end of the day, all it’s done is backfire.

“From now on we’ll just say to the broadcaster, ‘If you want to look at it and show there was an offside then that’s up to you,’. We’ll tell you the facts as to what we did at the time.

“But we absolutely did it with the best of intentions. I spoke to William [Collum] and the other officials in the match many times that week after it, just to continue to reiterate our support. I know that William was grateful for that.”