Copyright dailyrecord
Michael Stewart has issued an apology to the SFA after accusing the officials of a 'cover-up' during St Mirren's clash with Hibs. The Buddies lost 3-0 on Saturday evening but thought they'd taken the lead through Marcus Fraser, only for the VAR team to intervene and rule it out for offside. Multiple images were given to broadcaster Premier Sports to illustrate the offside and Stewart thought he saw a discrepancy in two of them – accusing the VAR room of a 'cover-up' to hide what he believed to be a mistake. Record Sport were told soon after the same frame was used for both and sent to the broadcaster , which can be confirmed by the Hawkeye system. It's believed SFA chief Ian Maxwell wrote to the broadcaster to complain about the outburst and Stewart, speaking on the Scottish Football Social Club, has now apologised. He said: “I apologise for any misunderstanding. I am not trying to claim there is something untoward going on. “It was the same frame. I should not have said it was a different frame and I apologise for that.” Speaking on co-commentary during Hibs' 3-0 win at the SMiSA Stadium, Stewart had said: "They've come through with second pictures and graphics because they made a mistake in the first one. "The first one was drawn off of Grant Hanley's yellow boot. That was the first one. And the second one for me, is then being drawn off the ball. We spoke about it, the ball was in front of the blue line initially. "So they've made a mistake. I think they've used a different frame in the second shot. A different frame has been used because to me the lines come up on Richards who crosses it. "The point in all this is this is a system that's dependent on complete accuracy and this has been shown that there was a mistake made. "Secondly, we've been questioning what fame to you use? Do you roll it forward a frame? Back a frame? I don't think the system is accurate enough to be able to make calls of such minuscule detail. "I think the system is not fit for purpose. That is a huge error that's been made and the second one, I think they've used a different frame to make sure that they scan still show that Marcus Fraser is till marginally in front and offside. "You can talk about cameras for us to visually look at it, but you've got people that are in the studio that are rolling frames forward and back and having to calibrate and everything like that. "But what we've seen there is there was a human error made in term of where they drew the first line. The second one has been used on a different frame. "It's too close to call so many decisions on a system I'm not sure is being used the way it should be. If they are making big calls and goals are being disallowed, I don't think it should continue. "To speed things up as well, VAR should be looking at things for a few seconds and then determining without drawling lines, do they stick with the on-field decision or not? Speed things up. "There's a mistake been made there and they are trying to cover it up. That is showing that the system is flawed."
