Cammy Devlin's foul to warrant a second yellow card in Heart of Midlothian's defeat to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final can be deemed as "reckless", according to the Scottish FA's head of refereeing Willie Collum.
The Australian midfielder was sent off deep into extra-time at Hampden Park with the team's level. The Dons would grab a winner moments later.
The decision by John Beaton to send off Devlin was the topic of much debate and led Hearts to issue a statement where the club expressed their frustration at both that decision and others that have gone against the team during this season, including decisions not to award penalties in a draw with Ross County and defeat at home to Rangers.
VAR, it should be noted, could not intervene in the Devlin decision because it was a second yellow card and not for mistaken identity. And Collum revealed that even if the protocol changed and it could get involved, the expectation is that it would choose not to with Beaton's decision.
"So it's a very subjective decision, the second yellow card," he said. "It's very understandable when you look at the images why you could reach a conclusion of reckless. And I also understand that people have another opinion.
"But regardless, VAR cannot get involved. That's not Scottish thing, that's a worldwide protocol.
"I've said this season already, there have been certain requests for second yellow cards in Scotland. If VAR could have got involved, they would have because they've been clearly wrong. Saturday's [decision] is clearly not a decision like that.
"So if we move the protocol forward in the future, and you could get involved in second yellow cards, we would not expect any VAR intervention regarding that decision at the weekend."
Collum also gave insight into Beaton's decision to send off Michael Steinwender in the first half of the game for a foul on Topi Keskinen, adjudged to have denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity [DOGSO].
The SFA provided footage of the incident with the referee's communication. Beaton, after showing the red card, is clear in his communication and decision.
"On-field decision DOGSO [denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity], clear unobstructed run to goal, in control of the ball," he tells his fellow officials and VAR.
Hearts head coach Neil Critchley spoke in the aftermath about how quickly Beaton produced the red card.
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"That's down to our coaching, and let me explain why," Collum said. "When a dodgy situation like that occurs, the referee's asked to consider several elements. Control of the ball, direction of where the attacker's going, covering defenders, even the speed of the ball, how fast the ball's traveling. He needs to make his mind up in a split second, almost take a picture of that incident as it happens.
"We tell referees sometimes to take their time in certain incidents. In that kind of scenario, never, because if the referee approaches the incident, starts to weigh everything up, look about, it looks like another defender is covering further back, you lose the whole perspective of the incident. So when people are critical of a referee here saying that he was very quick to show the red card, that's because of the coaching leadership.
"We expect referees to immediately make a decision about DOGSO. If you're hesitant here, or you don't take immediate action, you'll easily misjudge this incident.
"VAR is correct to agree with the decision, and also, one step further, if the referee's given a yellow card here for stopping a promising attack, we expect a non-field review to change that and upgrade that to a red card."
Collum was asked about the distance to the goal and whether that comes into the equation. He confirmed it is and that in this situation, Keskinen is not too far from the Hearts goal.
"You can see the player is an unobstructed run in goal there," he said, "If that player doesn't make the tackle, commits a foul, the Aberdeen player is in goal. This is an obvious goal-scoring opportunity for us."
