It’s amazing how when Rangers have decisions go against them that they even them out throughout the season but, when it happens to Celtic, the pressure is ramped right up on the officials.
Alan Muir’s decision not to send off Dan Casey wasn’t why Gers boss Philippe Clement suffered his first defeat at Ibrox but it certainly didn’t help, however, for Brendan Rodgers to specifically name John Beaton for criticism sets a dangerous precedent.
The Celtic manager might be getting a phone call from the SFA for his rant with Rangers legend Kris Boyd highlighting the hypocrisy on display.
Kris Boyd fires back as ex-Rangers star shoots down Rodgers
There is no conspiracy in Scottish football.
The officials are simply not qualified to do the jobs being asked of them.
For a start, none of them are full-time.
If they were able to spend more time analysing performances as a collective, there would be greater consistency north of the border and that is, probably, the biggest issue.
What is a red card or a penalty one week, isn’t another.
Philippe Clement has been fair to whistlers so far, only demanding to know why certain calls have been made when his own team have not been awarded similar themselves or have seen opponents get away with decisions that his players have been punished with.
Rodgers went in with both feet, studs showing on VAR
official John Beaton for Hearts 2 – 0 win over Celtic, holding him almost personally responsible.
He chose to start with Yang’s red card – studs up, 6ft off the ground in the face of an opposing player – and tried to claim it shouldn’t have been, before going on to Hearts penalty award.
What would have, maybe, given his own argument a bit more depth, would have been if Celtic’s early penalty – which was softer than Hearts – had also been criticised by Rodgers.
Obviously, that was the right call and the rest were wrong.
Boyd though, wasn’t having any of it.
“Don Robertson has made the decision, not John Beaton. What about his own team’s penalty? If Idah scores the penalty it probably doesn’t lead to that, but we won’t speak about that. The conspiracy theorists are back out tonight.”
Boyd is right, Rodgers knows what he is doing, pure deflection from an opportunity missed.
His press conferences have been all over the place recently.
The cracks have been showing for a while and Philippe Clement will know that he has another chance to apply some real pressure.
