Allan McGregor will receive no further action from a “kick out” against Kristoffer Ajer. It is the right decision but it hasn’t stopped people complaining about it.
The SFA Panel decision has fuelled a seemingly constant discussion on referees in Scotland.
Make your own mind up about it below. For me, it’s petulant, but would have been the softest red card the Old Firm has ever seen.
Allan McGregor won't face any action after his kick out at Celtic's Kristoffer Ajer on Sunday.
Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard described the act as "blatant".
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— BBC Sportsound (@BBCSportsound) September 4, 2018
Plenty have got away with worse
The same outrage isn’t consistent with that surrounding two horror incidents on Rangers players last season.
First Cedric Kipre ended Ryan Jack’s season with a crippling challenge. Then, Ryan Bowman broke Fabio Cardoso’s nose with a flying elbow. None received retrospective action. Or media outrage of any kind. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
These were horror incidents from a team of hammer throwers.
Fabio Cardoso will probably be best remembered for that horror challenge by Ryan Bowman, a pretty poor take on our game here. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
The same can be said of a Scott Brown face-scraping challenge against Hamilton’s Giannis Skondras.
This was an incident with considerably more malice than that shown by McGregor. It too received no retrospective action.
None of these are even in the same category as the Allan McGregor incident. The hyperbole and faux outrage has been laughable. Why is McGregor’s being treated differently?
Referees constantly under the microscope
Those on either side of the divide who cry conspiracy have completely missed the point.
On one side, the consistency of terrible refereeing decisions in Scotland is becoming farcical. On the other, the immense pressure and scrutiny on refs is hampering the game’s development. Referees are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
And the papers love it.
Fans believe that any decision that goes against their club is a bad one. It feels as if the SFA are all too weary of this in their decision making.
Today Aberdeen’s Michael Devlin had a red card upheld against Kilmarnock. Cue cries of conspiracy again.
It’s a soft one granted, but is he clean through? Overturning decisions like this set a wild precedent.
Aberdeen lose appeal against Michael Devlin's red card in 2-0 defeat by Kilmarnock.
Do you think it should have been overturned?
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Calls should be for consistency in decisions rather than punishment based on what club’s involved.
Whatever the case, the standard of officiating in Scotland has never come under such scrutiny. Rangers have bore the brunt of poor decisions plenty of times.
McGregor’s kick out was a nothing incident when so much genuine malice has happened before. The SFA, dare I say it, got this right.
The whole thing is being massively overplayed.