In 2010, the Scottish referees went on strike. Largely, in similar circumstances to what we’re seeing now in the wake of Rangers’ farcical SFA charges.
Celtic bemoaned the reversing of a decision for a penalty by one Dougie McDonald. He awarded a penalty for Celtic against Dundee United, reversed it and then was found to be “lying” (a very strong word in the circumstances) about consulting his assistant before reversing it. He consulted him afterwards. Similarly, there’s no way Collum saw Candeias “blow kisses”.
Celtic won the game 2-1. They complained vigorously. The referees went on strike in solidarity and McDonald ended up taking early retirement from the game.
There was an intimation throughout that Celtic were being targeted by refs for whatever paranoid or religious reason their supporters could dream up.
It really was as daft as it sounds. As some might think this is too. That strike took the game to a near standstill in Scotland.
But why didn’t the SFA go after Celtic then like they are going after Rangers now? Lennon has been on a one man war path against referees since he stepped into management.
One gets the feeling touchline bans will not suffice from these charges.
Something stinks. At the core of this, Rangers have been hit with five charges for challenging a shocking decision. But what role have we played in this gathering s***storm?
Rangers must fight SFA charges but drop ambiguity
In the Rangers scenario, the club have went for Willie Collum and his apparently ceiling-less standard of terrible refereeing. Let’s be honest – the Daniel Candeias sending off was effing ridiculous.
Nadir Ciftci himself would’ve buckled at it.
The truth is this entire thing could’ve been avoided if the SFA just swallowed their pride.
At the same time, Rangers hurried that statement out and were rather ambiguous about why they were complaining.
Was it about Collum’s incompetency? Was it about bias? It merely said it “wasn’t the first time” and that there was an “underlying issue”. Read the whole thing here.
But whether Rangers’ statement writer made a boo-boo or not, it’s irrelevant. This whole thing didn’t have to get this far.
Rangers now have no choice but to go at the SFA full throttle. This isn’t feeding into some kind of entitled, paranoid belief that everyone’s out to get us. It’s just calling it like it is.
Rangers can no longer be vague and need to call out what they are meaning to call out.
Club must demand parity
One thing is clear to anyone who watches the game here. Rangers – both their fans and their players – are officiated and judged to a much higher standard than anyone else. That’s what’s unfair.
And as a club, as supporters and as a footballing nation we need to abandon this reckless culture. All that clubs demand is parity. Barring probably Celtic, who have a vested interest in Rangers ongoing harsh assessments in matches.
We have to make one thing clear – the SFA can’t paper over this by turning it back on to Rangers. The standards, equality and leadership of officiating in this country needs drastic improvement. No amount of SFA charges can hide that fact.
It begins by being able to admit when you get it majorly wrong.
