Many may have thought that Brendan Rodgers would have backed down after the SFA charged the Celtic manager, following his comments post-Tynecastle last Sunday.

Not a hope in hell.

A man who truly believed in what he was saying just under a week ago, Rodgers was in no mood to retract his statements, made immediately after a VAR-filled defeat to Hearts in the capital. The technology - brought in to ‘assist’ officials in their refereeing duties – got its full usage that day, intervening to upgrade Yang Hyun-jun’s original yellow to a red card, following a high foot on the home side’s Alex Cochrane. It again got involved, when Tomoki Iwata was adjudged to have handled the ball in his own area, even though he was off-balance and falling, hence the outstretched arm.

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In his press conference today previewing the upcoming Scottish Cup match against David Martindale’s struggling Livingston, the Northern Irishman was asked if he regrets his comments made five days prior, given the subsequent charge, he said: "No, not at all.

“My job is to defend the team and club and that’s what we’ll do in this case. We’ll defend it vigorously and when the day comes, we’ll go from there. I’ll sit down with the club and the lawyers, and we’ll look at it from there.”

The club and/or Rodgers have been summoned to answer an SFA charge placed upon the incumbent manager, the charge being for the criticising of match officials “in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence”, according to association guidelines. Rodgers is a smart individual, who chooses his words carefully when in the presence of the media – at least, most of the time. This was evident today, as he did not want to get drawn into the argument again, perhaps in fear of being charged further.

The mainstream media present at Lennoxtown pressed for his thoughts on why he was charged for the comments, with his response being one of self-defence. He bluntly responded: “I don’t want to go into that.

“It’s my observations over many games. Primarily around the inconsistencies of decisions. I don’t want to go into it too much. I never talk so much about referees, and I’ve never done so over the course of my career. I understand they make mistakes, but I felt the ones last week were clear errors in the game.”

Time will tell if Rodgers will be able to successfully win his case on March 28, a full 25 days after the post-match comments were uttered. If not, he may face a fine, a suspended sentence, or – worst case scenario – an immediate touchline ban, which could include Celtic’s crunch tie against Rangers at Ibrox. Not an ideal situation, and one that a ‘fast-track’ system would have been tailor-made for.

However, it is not just the managers who are feeling the frustrations of VAR and its implementation, but those taking to the pitch as well. Also facing the media was Celtic’s ever-present defender this season Liam Scales, who played in the now-infamous match in Gorgie. In his first response concerning that game in the press conference, he mentioned that the game was “taken out of their hands”. When pressed on that viewpoint, Scales further elaborated his reasoning for this claim. He said: “Some might be (used to VAR). I’m not, to be honest.

“It surprised me. Watching it back especially, no one on the pitch even knew it had happened. Tomoki (Iwata) didn’t even know until half-time that it was given against him. It might have even been given against Ali (Johnston). I’m not sure myself, but it was surprising. That’s football.

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“It (VAR) has completely changed the game. You’re constantly waiting, and for every goal that’s scored you’re waiting to see if it’s been disallowed in the build-up, or every challenge you’re waiting to see if it’s been pulled back. You always have to be ready for the decision to be changed which is difficult at times.”

This confusion is shared by both the manager and his players, though Scales seems to be more accepting of the verdict than his superior, in all honesty. As much as Rodgers can complain about the decision that has been made away from the stadium at Clydesdale House, it is the players that have to deal with the apparent re-refereeing of games by VAR officials in real-time on the park.

The question is: how do players – especially defenders – work around this? Indeed, that was the next question that was posed to Scales, as the handball rule continues to split opinion, regardless of team allegiances. When posed with how they go about trying to avoid penalisation through this offence, he said: “I take that arms behind the back approach when you’re blocking shots or pressing an opponent, because you know if they shoot and it’s going towards the goal and it hits your hand or arm, then it’s a handball.

“Physically, it’s difficult to jump without using your arms to get yourself up. When there’s contact involved between players, your limbs are pushed in different ways and they react differently.

“Sometimes it’s out of your control and it’s really hard to defend that naturally when these things are in your mind, but we just have to get on with it.”

Scales continued: “It’s (the decision) not happened to us often, and probably won’t happen to us much more. That decision is rarely given against you.

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“We’ve worked on if we end up with 10 men, that sort of thing, which is more common than that. That’s what this week has been based on. Looking back on that game, the only thing we can do is accept that we’re down to 10 men and play a certain way to win with the 10 men. That’s what we’ve worked on, so we’ve learned a lot from it.”

From player to manager, it is clear that there is a united front between those on the pitch and off of it managing their affairs.

Next up, Celtic face Livingston, with the chance to go to Hampden the prize for the victors. Rodgers and Scales will be hoping that VAR does not need to rear its head for this one, at least not for themselves. As for the former, his SFA ‘day of destiny’ creeps closer day by day.

Time will indeed tell if he can fight his case successfully later this month.