Bobby Madden has warned of a "bigger problem" being created as he weighed in on a Kilmarnock vs Rangers VAR flashpoint.
The former Scottish Premiership official delivered his verdict on penalty appeals at Rugby Park after David Watson was pulled back by Mohamed Diomande in Rangers' 3-0 victory on Saturday night.
Replays show Watson running into the box and being tugged by Diomande. However, the midfielder was never going to be able to impact play with the ball from the right flank blocked.
According to Madden, the view for officials will be that the incident is inconsequential, as the player had no opportunity to play the ball.
However, Madden fears allowing incidents off the ball, where there is no impact on the play, could lead to a bigger problem further down the line for referees.
Kilmarnock assistant Stevie Frail had said of the incident: "There are big decisions we feel go against us in the game.
"We felt the penalty, the pull on David Watson, there should have been something in that. But again it goes against us."
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On Instagram, Madden posted: "Interesting. My understating is I’m going against the expert pundits here, but bear with me and remember it’s only my opinion.
"Officials will believe this holding offence has no impact on the game as the attacker has no opportunity to play the ball. The danger in my opinion is that by allowing this you allow similar holding, tripping, pushing offences off the ball and surely you create a bigger problem.
"The defender has switched off, the attacker is going beyond him with the defender knowing he can’t match the run. He isn’t aware of where the ball is going, his only intention is to stop the attacker. That’s a foul.
"There is no way of knowing where the ball is going, then you can discuss second phase etc. We don’t know how play will develop, what we can be sure of is that the action of the defender impacted the attacker.
"Interesting situation and certain to provoke healthy debate."
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