The fallout continues after Rangers defeat to Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final with fans, players, pundits and Philippe Clement all voicing their concerns about some of the officiating.
Every big call went in one team’s favour with the Vaclav Cerny penalty incident in particular getting worse with every viewing.
The manager doesn’t seem to have much luck in these fixtures, however, the Rangers squad being called out for not making more of an appeal to John Beaton is a bizarre narrative and dangerous precedent to set.
Rangers players should have done more in Vaclav Cerny penalty incident
As with the Cerny penalty, it is almost like Gers fans are being gaslighted.
Everyone can see what happened, so it makes no sense for anyone to try and make excuses or to shift the blame, and yet that is exactly what Neil McCann and Scott Allan did on Sportscene.
For those who haven’t seen it, this is what McCann and Allan said on Sportscene:
“I’m amazed that the Rangers players are not going berserk there and putting pressure on VAR to take a look at that.
“Maybe they have and they have just said to John Beaton there is ‘nothing to see here’ – there is plenty to see here.”
Allan added: “It’s a huge talking point and for me it’s a penalty.
“We have touched on the foot on the line and the pull. For me the big thing is, if I was a player on the side there – it’s the reaction of the Rangers players.
“They didn’t really put any pressure on the referee to look at it.
“Cerny himself wasn’t making much noise about it but for me it’s a stick-on penalty.”
Why are BBC pundits trying to distract from the main problem?
As with the actual foul from those of a green and white persuasion, McCann and Allan are trying to make a point that simply isn’t valid.
Every Rangers player without exception appealed for a foul and for a penalty with Mohamed Diomande and Nedim Bajrami both going to referee John Beaton.
What else were they supposed to do? Scream in his face? Because we all know what would happen there, the yellow cards wouldn’t come out quickly enough.
The reaction of the Rangers players is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what they do or don’t do, VAR should have informed Beaton that it was inside the box and therefore awarded a penalty.
What makes this level of punditry worse, is that the Rangers players did appeal, so why are they trying to claim that they didn’t and shift the blame away from the man in the middle?
As with many of the incidents in the final, it makes less sense the more that you think about it.
