Graeme Souness levels astonishing Rangers vs Celtic VAR 'influence' accusation at 'biased' Chris Sutton

Graeme Souness has made an astonishing claim that Chris Sutton may have been trying to influence VAR with his Rangers vs Celtic commentary.

The Light Blues were able to get back into the game from 2-0 down when they were eventually awarded a penalty for Alistair Johnston's tackle on Fabio Silva. The attacker was initially booked for diving but referee John Beaton was asked to look again by VAR and gave a spot kick.

On commentary, Sutton was baffled by the turnaround and branded the decision "embarrassing." Watching on, Ibrox legend Souness had the sneaky suspicion that the Hoops hero may have been trying to have an impact on the officials' decision making on the off chance he was being heard in the VAR studio.

VAR officials don't hear the commentary and Souness was informed of that but still felt Sutton may have been trying to have an influence.

Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: "100 per cent. I'll tell you, Silva is a diver. He is embarrassing himself and I'm sure they're talking about it in Scotland, but that is a penalty. The defender cut him across his knees with his dangling foot and brings him down. It's a penalty.

"I'm reluctant to go strong on Chris Sutton because he turned up at a charity event two weeks ago for me and we chatted, he's funny. I thank him again for that.

"But I can't believe how biased Chris is when he's talking about Rangers. He was saying 'it's embarrassing, it's not a penalty'. It was easily a penalty. It's not even a discussion to have for me that.

"And here's a question. Do VAR listen to the commentary for the game? Because I'm thinking 'Chris is going that strong here he's trying to influence whoever is listening maybe in the VAR.'

Jim White pointed out the VAR officials do NOT hear the commentary but Souness added: "I thought 'Chris is gone that mad on this he's trying to influence someone on VAR who is listening."