John Collins is articulate, forthright and unafraid of any backlash that may come his way if his view isn’t in line with what most of the other media commentators and pundits spin. Last night, for instance, he called out the failings of the Scottish FA’s judicial process which has taken over two months to deal with theRangers Covid 5, a delay that has ultimately been to the advantage of theRangers and the disadvantage of Celtic in this weekend’s Scottish Cup 4th Round tie at Ibrox.
Earlier in the season the advantage was once again with theRangers as Ryan Christie had to self isolate after being named alongside former Celtic star Kieran Tierney as a close contact with Stuart Armstrong who tested positive for Covid while on Scotland duty.
(Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
Tierney was subsequently allowed to play for Arsenal but Christie was denied the same approval to play in the first Glasgow Derby of the season. And it was even worse for Celtic in that Odsonne Edouard also tested positive while away with the French Under 21s and had to miss that game and several others as a result.
“In my opinion, they’ve used the system,” Collins stated last night on BBC Sportsound as the panel discussed the cynical decision taken by theRangers to appeal the suspensions given to the Ibrox Covid-5 after the Scottish FA allowed theRangers four weeks to investigate the incident themselves. And the grounds for the appeal, they are good players and the ban could damage their careers is frankly a disgrace.
“James Tavernier’s out injured and their only other real right-back is the young lad (Patterson) who would have been suspended,” Collins explained. “So they’ve played the system and delayed the process which means they had a right-back available for the last (Glasgow Derby) game and they’re going to have a right-back available on Sunday.
“So it’s worked and once again the SFA system is flawed. The process should be much quicker and the question should have been asked straight away: ‘Why are you appealing something that you’re not going to win?’
“The players have broken the rules and they need to pay for that. The frustrating thing is it’s going to be 65 days from when the rule was broken and the appeal date. I think that’s too long and that has to change going forward.”
Photo by Stuart Wallace
It was quicker when Boli Bolingoli broke the rules back in August. He got his lengthy ban pronto and Celtic’s next two games were immediately postponed. No such swift punishment was ever going to come theRangers way, with their supporters already pleased at having one of their own appointed to the Scottish FA as Compliance Officer.
If this Compliance Officer cannot see that the frivolous and unsound appeal is anything other than as John Collins describes then the Celtic interim Manager John Kennedy must go it alone again and call it out at the weekend. There is no-one on the Celtic board that is going to do this and that in itself is a huge part of our problem.
One league in European football allows referees who support a club to referee their games and Celtic year ofter year say little or nothing. The odd raised eyebrow or declarations of surprise are no longer adequate.
The appearance of any of theRangers Covid 5 at the Scottish Cup match at the weekend disgraces Scottish football.
Dominic McKay Photo: Lynne Cameron
Celtic have a new CEO starting on 1 July. He’s in the building next week. He’ll be reading up on everything that’s going on and theRangers exploiting the Covid protocols for their own ends is unacceptable. Dominic, are you listening?
Photo: Steven Paston