Continually using the term 'subjectivity' to excuse controversial refereeing decisions is a 'lazy argument and a cop-out', BBC pundit Michael Stewart has told former category 1 official Kenny Clark.

The two were debating the introduction and use of VAR in Scottish football as part of Sportsound's pre-match show on Saturday alongside host Kenny Macintyre and fellow pundits including Rory Loy, Willie Miller and Tom English.

Clark would not be drawn on individual incidents such as Connor Goldson's handball against Celtic at Ibrox on Monday but did engage on the wider topic of the rules and VAR.

While discussing the handball law, the interpretation of it and how Scottish officials are coming to seemingly inconsistent decisions, Clark said: "In an ideal world there's no such thing as a difference between decisions that referees make from week to week, even an individual referee, never mind between different referees.

"But what I'm trying to explain to you is this is not an exact science and refereeing is not an exact science. There will always be situations where fans of one team say 'we should have got that penalty this week because this team got one against us like that two months ago'. That's the nature of it because football and refereeing is so subjective."

Stewart, however, was having none of it and immediately interjected to question Clark's explanation.

He said: "I've got to say I think that's a lazy argument and an easy one to hide behind at times."

Stewart later labelled Clark's contentions over subjectivity as "a cop-out" while, when the former referee put it to the panel that issues with the interpretation of the laws were not just a problem in Scotland, host Macintyre responded with statistics showing that penalties awarded in England after VAR's introduction decreased while in Scotland they have almost doubled.

To that, Clark replied "I don't know about all the stats" before going on to say: "Apart from anything else, the whole idea of VAR being introduced was because we kept being told referees were missing things... now that VAR is intervening, they're not happy with that either so I'm finding it difficult to understand the logic."

Stewart came back in to clarify his own misgivings, saying: "Fundamentally what I think is the problem, particularly going back to the handball law, is that yes it's about individuals and their interpretation of it but my problem is that I think the referees are interpreting it in the complete wrong fashion."

Clark retorted: "I suspect the fans of the clubs which were awarded those penalties fully agreed with the decision that the penalties should've been awarded and when those were not given in favour of their team they disagreed with the decision. That is the nature of the beast."

Once more, Stewart voiced his displeasure with the argument, saying: "Lazy. That's lazy... it's a cop-out. 

"D'you know what that shows? That shows you've not learned anything and what you're saying there is that 'we got the decisions right and the fans are just complaining because they got the decisions given against them'. That's what that says, Kenny."