Rangers star Connor Goldson has criticised the standard of refereeing in Scotland, saying that teams and players are being allowed to be over-physical and disrupt the flow of games.
The former Brighton defender was talking after the Betfred Cup Final against Hearts where the Jambos were incredibly rough around the edges.
With elbows flying and a tactic to disrupt the game, Goldson says referees need to give players more protection and punish sides for persistent fouling in order to let the game here flourish.
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“Scottish football in general is quite physical and it takes the foreign boys a little bit of time to adjust to it but the referees have to try and make sure people aren’t getting hurt,” explains Goldson [Evening Times].
“And for Scottish football to improve the referees have to take action against the ridiculous challenges.
“It’s fine being physical – we’re all physical players and physical teams – but they can’t get away with yellow cards for elbows and nasty tackles where they want to leave a mark just to show they’re the ones who are being aggressive and they’re up for it.
“That’s not really football but we deal with it and keep playing and if teams want to do it then we keep accepting it and it’s our responsibility to get past that and play our own game.
“Personally, having played in England, I feel it’s only in Scotland you get away with some of the stuff you do up here.
“You can make six or seven fouls in Scotland and not get a yellow card but those little fouls disrupt the whole rhythm of the game.
“And that’s all they want to do but in England or Europe if you make one or two of those fouls then you get a yellow card and can’t do it for the rest of the game.”
It’s a robust argument from Goldson and one which can’t really be argued with over the piece.
Rangers regularly need to deal with overly physical sides, the likes of Livingston, Hearts and Aberdeen, who will disrupt the game through persistent fouling.
It’s a frustrating tactic in Scottish football but maybe the reason why it has survived so long is because of its effectiveness against the gulf in quality between the likes of the Old Firm.
There’s a sympathy there for the smaller teams who struggle with the technical quality of the bigger sides.
But it’s still outside the laws of the game and the leniency of referees undoubtedly affects the standard of football here.
Is it time for referees to listen to the likes of Connor Goldson?
