Scotland midfielder John McGinn was told by referee Ilgiz Tantashev that his penalty claim was rejected because the ball was heading out of play at the moment of the challenge.
McGinn’s brother Stephen, a first-team coach at Falkirk, revealed the explanation given on the pitch during Scotland’s 1-0 defeat to Morocco in Boston.
Neil el Aynaoui, the same midfielder who challenged John McGinn, was also involved in a separate penalty claim from Scott McTominay during the same match.
Stephen McGinn told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound that it was his brother’s incident, not McTominay’s, that he felt carried genuine weight as a penalty appeal.
“The McTominay one, my gut reaction was he was playing for it,” Stephen McGinn told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound.
“The John one, I genuinely thought at the time this is the one. Having seen it back, absolutely a penalty. No doubt in my mind.”
Stephen McGinn then revealed what the referee communicated directly to John on the pitch, a justification that left many puzzled by its reasoning.
“On the pitch, the referee told John, because the ball’s going out of play, it wasn’t a foul. When has that ever been the case? It doesn’t make sense.”
Former Scotland winger and current Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann backed that view, insisting the McGinn appeal was the stronger of the two penalty claims.
“I think the McGinn one is a penalty and the McTominay one isn’t,” McCann said, drawing a clear distinction between the two incidents.
McCann explained that the contact from El Aynaoui was sufficient to constitute a foul regardless of the ball’s position or trajectory at the time.
“The McGinn one, we’ve done it as players. He is understanding that he [El Aynaoui] is coming from the side and he knows he just has to take it across him and take the contact.”
“Granted, it is not a clean-out job, but there’s enough contact on his hip to put him out,” McCann added, reinforcing the case for a penalty being awarded.
Both McCann and Stephen McGinn also expressed strong views about a separate incident involving defender Issa Diop and Scotland striker Che Adams.
The pair believed that Diop should have received a red card for what they described as a last-man challenge that denied Adams a clear goalscoring opportunity.
“It is absolutely a red card for me,” McCann said, pointing out there was no covering defender present when the challenge was made on Adams.
“It is not a natural collision or an accidental pull-down. He’s pulled him down. Che Adams got goal side. I can’t believe he wasn’t brought to the [VAR] monitor.”
McCann also dismissed suggestions the challenge occurred too far from goal to warrant a dismissal, referencing standards applied in the Scottish Premiership during the previous season.
“Somebody said behind me ‘he’s quite far out’, but we had guys being sent off in the opposition half in the Premiership and I think we all work under the same laws of the game.”
John McGinn himself aligned with that assessment, stating that under the standards applied in Scottish football last season, the decision should have been straightforward.
“The way our league became last season, that’s an absolute stonewall red card,” McGinn said, summarising the widespread frustration felt among the Scotland camp after the defeat.
