As Rangers were awarded two penalties in the weekend’s win over Livingston, you could almost instantly hear the clacking of headlines being written.
James Tavernier might’ve missed the first one – an admittedly soft penalty award which has seen young Ross McCausland branded a diver – the skipper duly converted the second.
Whilst the latter of the penalties, a handball by Mikey Devlin from a corner, was more concrete, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that the McCausland award appears to be evidence of something of a penalty ruse.
The usual Celtic voices have been mixing the pot in punditry and getting fans talking online with the hysteria even reaching into calls for an overhaul of how the game is officiated.
Mark Wilson was the latest to take a dig, joking about James Tavernier’s “extraordinary” run of penalties at Rangers on Sky Sports.
It’s not just our Old Firm rivals who’ve started suggesting there’s a stitch up between Rangers and the referees, with the contention now a running joke in the vernacular of Scottish Premiership football.
Stuart Cosgrove was even talking on the BBC this week about the “inherent bias” in favour of Rangers which led to the club being awarded more tickets than Aberdeen for the League Cup Final.
Perhaps most criminally, as a result of this chatter the relentless James Tavernier – who’s benefited from a total of 58 penalty goals for Rangers – is often labelled a spot kick merchant even through he’s netted 54 goals from other areas of the pitch.
But more sinisterly, the suggestion is that Rangers are seemingly the beneficiary of more penalties because the referees, and subsequently the VAR officials, wear blue-tinted glasses.
Celtic equal with Rangers on Scottish Premiership penalties received
It’s interesting that the party line from within Celtic regarding VAR – which also controversially disallowed two goals for Rangers in their 2-0 win over Livingston – is a negative one.
Brendan Rodgers, as if to follow the lead of his infinitely more popular predecessor Ange Postecoglou, claims he’d bin the technology tomorrow.
Rangers boss Philippe Clement was a lot more logical, claiming that the fact there are more “honest” decisions and “less mistakes” makes the entire thing worthwhile.
But whilst it’s Rangers who are apparently the beneficiaries of more penalties than anyone else, some ex-Celtic players, and others in the Scottish game, appear to be ignoring the facts.
The Parkhead side have been awarded the exact same number of spot kicks as Rangers in the Scottish Premiership this season (6).
Both teams have scored four and missed two in a revealing statistic which we’re sure won’t make a jot of difference to those who’ve already made up their minds.
In the latest instalment of the worst stitch up in the history of football, it probably just means Rangers can’t even get their advantageous penalty scheme right.
