Welcome to Rangers, Patrick Stewart. The new CEO will have taken his new job with his eyes wide open and has made a fast start to life on Edmiston Drive.
Philippe Clement, despite defeat, seems to have turned a corner as manager and will be looking forward to getting some normality in the hierarchy at Ibrox.
The former Man Utd interim CEO might have expected Clement’s position to be his primary objective, however, the SFA and Willie Collum appear to have made it to the top of his to do list.
Patrick Stewart gets to work as Rangers’ new CEO
According to Chris Jack of The Rangers Review, Stewart has contacted the SFA and demanded answers over the incident that saw a blatant penalty turned down as VAR turned a blind eye.
There is no debate. John Beaton got the initial call wrong and Alan Muir as VAR compounded the issue.
It was a clear foul inside the box and as former whistler Bobby Madden highlighted, Beaton shouldn’t even had been sent to the monitor, he should have been informed that the foul was inside the box.
Stewart will likely have a list of questions for Collum and will want to hear the decision making audio from the incident too.
Unfortunately, the best Rangers can hope for is an apology when what they should have had is a penalty at 3-3 and with the chance to win a cup final.
What makes matters worse, is that this wasn’t a subjective incident.
There was no grey area like a handball or a clear and obvious advantage call, it was black and white.
Is it time for Rangers to push for non-SFA officials?
Is it time for Rangers to ask for independent officials? It has happened before in Scottish football when pressure from Celtic led to them going on strike, as reported by the BBC.
That might sound extreme, but Scottish referees are terrified to make any sort of decision in an Old Firm derby that might benefit Rangers.
There is enough evidence from the VAR decisions since Clement took charge alone.
If the same officials are allowed to take charge in Old Firm games, the same mistakes will keep happening.
Hopefully, Stewart has more luck than his predecessors whose complaints about Collum earned him a promotion.
