Charlie Nicholas sent a ‘grow-up’ message to the eleven year old petulant football club that’s currently playing out of Ibrox after they send a letter to the Scottish FA complaining about the referee and VAR in Saturday’s 3-2 Celtic win in the Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park.
Mick Beale came into the media room at Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon after the match and immediately launched into his attack on Kevin Clancy and the VAR officials who he (incorrectly) reckoned should have intervened to overrule the referee’s decision to disallow a goal by Morelos after theRangers striker clearly pushed Alistair Johnston in the back before putting the ball into the Celtic net.
Clancy saw the push – which no-one is denying happened – and deemed it sufficient to award a foul to Celtic. VAR therefore had no other alternative that to agree with the referee’s on-field decision – because they too saw the push. theRangers argument therefore is that the push was insufficient to merit a foul but as Celtic have often found to their cost in these games, the referee’s decision is the one that counts.
Remember the game at Ibrox on 2 January when Fashion Sakala won/conned a penalty for theRangers by leaving his leg out waiting for contact from Carl Starfelt that didn’t come. He rolled about on the Ibrox turf then when the spot kick was awarded sneakily celebrated behind the referee’s back.
And in the same game Goldson’s clear and obvious handball was deemed by the referee not to be a penalty. Celtic got on with the game and despite these two controversial decisions going against them, still managed to get a result – the 2-2 draw suited Ange Postecoglou much better than it did Mick Beale who needed to win the match if he was going to mount a serious title challenge.
I’ll show you a handball 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/l0exeMdrKX
— RichieEnrico (@RichGmusichoops) April 8, 2023
Beale and his captain James Tavernier also claimed that the ball struck Jota on the arm for the second Celtic goal on Saturday, a ludicrous claim that has been conveniently forgotten. At his media conference, which was attended by The Celtic Star (front row centre and smiling or laughing throughout) Beale seemed to be demanding that VAR should have penalised Jota for handball because the Morelos push was punished.
And there’s more, the Scottish FA replied immediately to theRangers letter of complaint, apparently backing the referee and that has apparently ‘astonished’ the petulant football club, the youngest one in Scottish football.
Then there’s their support, Scotland’s Shame, who have decided that ‘Father’ Clancy, who they reckon is a Roman Catholic and therefore unsuitable to referee any of theRangers games. They have already done something similar to Willie Collum who clearly has been influenced by this pressure, judging by the manner in which he awards decisions in their favour.
Clancy’s personal contact details were released and shared by Scotland’s Shame which has resulted in the Scottish FA having to contact Police Scotland after receiving a large volume of abusive messages about Kevin Clancy – including threats to him and his family.
The Scottish FA released a statement last night on the abuse and threats that Clancy has received.
“The Scottish FA has referred a significant volume of threatening and abusive emails to Police Scotland after personal and professional contact details of Saturday’s Old Firm (sic) referee, Kevin Clancy, were published online following the derby match.
“The association’s security and integrity manager has been liaising with Kevin and Police Scotland following a series of unacceptable messages being sent via email and phone over the holiday weekend.
“We offer our full support to Kevin and reiterate our wider support to the referee community.”
Ian Maxwell, SFA chief executive, said the criticism went beyond that of the referee’s performance and slammed those who sent threatening messages towards Clancy his family.
There seems to be no problem in the warped minds of Scotland Shame with Rangers supporting referees handling Celtic games, including of course Glasgow Derbies, but the idea that anyone they believe to be a Roman Catholic handling these matches has them foaming from their mouths.
Maybe it’s time for the Scottish FA to bring in match officials from outside of Scotland to handle these games?
Charlie Nicholas, like most folk, reckon Celtic got away with one with Johnston perhaps buying the foul – in a very similar way to Sakala buying the penalty on 2 January but has little sympathy for theRangers or for Mick Beale who now has failed to beat Celtic in three matches in charge of the 12 year-old club with one draw and two defeats to show for his efforts.
Writing in his Scottish Daily Express column this morning Nicholas told theRangers that their complaints will achieve nothing and that the bottom line is that Beale’s side still can’t beat Celtic, even when they caught Ange Postecoglou’s side on an off-day.
“(the)Rangers have written to the SFA to complain about Alfredo Morelos’s goal being chalked off against Celtic. If the Light Blues really want to make a real point then they should be concentrating all their efforts in trying to win the SFA’s flagship event – the Scottish Cup. Celtic face (the)Rangers again at Hampden later this month in the semi-final. It is the final chance for Michael Beale’s side to end the season with silverware.
“Yes, I understand why (the)Rangers have grievances from the weekend. I agree Morelos’ goal should have stood and Kevin Clancy shouldn’t have ruled his effort out at Celtic Park. Maybe if the goal had stood then Celtic might not have won but the score-line is out there now. That won’t change.
“You can write to the Scottish Football Association but what is it going to achieve? Just to tell officials or the VAR officials they got the decision wrong? It will achieve absolutely zero. The bottom line is that (the)Rangers still can’t beat Celtic. If you go and beat them at Hampden then you don’t need to write letters to the SFA.
“The perfect response would be to beat Celtic because yet again, their rivals have not played well and won again. The strikers were the difference. Morelos had two big chances in the second half but he didn’t take them. Kyogo Furuhashi took his.”
They’re only 11 years old, not 12 as reported later in the article, and Nicholas is completely wrong in saying Morelos’ goal should have stood as he’d pushed Johnston in the back with both hands, so a clear foul to Celtic.
Apart from that, a great site you run here and very much appreciated.