Ex-PGMOL ref makes feelings clear after analysing Rangers vs Aberdeen red-card controversy
Former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee Keith Hackett has weighed in on one of the more contentious flashpoints from Rangers’ 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie, giving his backing to referee Matthew MacDermid’s decision not to send off Afeez Aremu for a heavy sliding challenge on Rangers midfielder Cameron Devlin.
Amid a match already generating plenty of debate over its two disallowed/awarded penalty-related flashpoints, one of the more physically alarming moments came from Aremu’s sliding tackle on Devlin, with the Aberdeen midfielder’s foot making heavy contact with the Rangers player’s leg. MacDermid opted to show only a yellow card for the challenge — a decision that drew visible protests from Rangers supporters in the stadium, many of whom felt the nature and force of the tackle warranted a straight re
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Hackett reviewed the footage and concluded MacDermid got the call right, even while acknowledging it sat right on the borderline. “It’s subjective,” Hackett said. “I didn’t see any malice in it, and neither did the referee, and that’s what saved him. But when you come into a challenge with your boot high off the ground, that’s the signal to the referee: I’m looking at red and not yellow.”
That’s a nuanced verdict rather than a straightforward defence — Hackett is essentially saying the challenge carried real red-card risk given the height and force involved, and that referees are trained to treat a raised boot as an immediate signal to consider the most serious sanction available. But in his assessment, the absence of any clear intent to injure ultimately tipped the decision back toward a yellow card rather than a dismissal, aligning with MacDermid’s on-field call.
The Aremu incident was one of several contentious moments in a match that generated no shortage of officiating talking points. MacDermid brandished nine yellow cards in total across the ninety-plus minutes, and the game is already better known for its two dramatic penalty-area flashpoints in the second half: Aberdeen’s own penalty appeal, waved away in the 81st minute after Nisbet and Rangers’ Dujon Sterling tangled in the box, followed two minutes later by Kevin Nisbet’s headed goal being ruled out by VAR for a push on Sterling in the build-up — a decision Aberdeen manager Stephen Robinson described afterward as feeling inconsistent with the earlier non-award, even while stopping short of direct criticism of the officials.
Hackett’s intervention on the Aremu incident adds a further layer to that broader officiating conversation, suggesting that even with three separate contentious calls to assess from the same match, independent expert review has so far backed the referee’s judgment on each of them — the penalty award for Rangers, the disallowed Aberdeen goal, and now the non-red-card for Aremu’s challenge on Devlin.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of individual decisions, the result itself proved hugely significant for Derek McInnes and Rangers. Despite the nervy finish, Rangers were largely in control for most of the match, securing a much-needed win just days after their chastening European exit. The challenge now, per reporting, is for McInnes to build genuine momentum from the victory, with Falkirk, Motherwell and St Mirren up next before Rangers face back-to-back Old Firm derbies against Celtic — a sequence that will go a long way toward determining whether this Aberdeen win proves to be the start of a genuine turnaround or simply a brief respite in a still-difficult opening period for the new manager.
