THE news this morning that a Celtic led initiative to introduce foreign referees and assistants to the Scottish Premiership as early as next season, has been welcomed almost unanimously by the Celtic support but others seem less keen.
Tom English seems to disagree saying that it would be ‘a cowardly surrender to the mad conspiracy theorists” and adding that he hopes “this proposal is chucked in the bin where it belongs.”
Introducing referees from other countries would be a cowardly surrender to the mad conspiracy theorists. Hope this proposal is chucked in the bin where it belongs https://t.co/3PFfSSR5m2
— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) February 20, 2019
English is of course Irish but he was made a career for himself in sports journalism in Scotland firstly ay Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday and latterly at the BBC. Presumably he got these jobs because he was the best candidate – the fact that he is ‘foreign’ doesn’t come into it. And the likes of Larsson, Laudrup, Moravcik or Gascoigne never won any caps for Scotland but made a big impression on our game.
The Celtic team at the weekend had a German, a Norwegian, a Belgian, an Irishman, five Scotsmen, A Frenchman and and Englishman all starting with another Scot coming off the bench along with an American.
If Irishman English was writing about this game nationality would have not been a consideration when discussing the Celtic players – he would have written about their ability, their performance, their form and so on.
If the Scottish clubs are free to go and bring in foreign players to improve their team why shouldn’t they collectively decide to bring in foreign referees if they have decided that the current Scottish crop is not up to scratch?
How is that a “cowardly surrender,” Tom and why do you regard it as being led by ‘mad conspiracy theorists” – because if that isn’t the case, as you imply then all you are left with is that the Scottish referees are so bad that they are not fit for purpose and the clubs have every right to go shopping for foreign referees to handle our games.
This morning’s news has also upset the referees themselves and their ‘Union’ Prospect has this afternoon hit out at the proposals. This is the Union that a few weeks ago were going on about the DEATH THREATS that their member had allegedly received but many weeks have passed since he got a Police escort to an Ayr United game and there has been no news on any arrests. Quite remarkable really.
Prospect Scottish Football Referees’ Branch released the following statement, in which they claim that the SFA has refused to respond to their calls to address serious health and safety concerns in recent months.”
‘’…. If there is substance to today’s media reports that the Scottish Football Association are in talks with clubs about introducing overseas based officials, it’s another appalling development……….. ” Scottish based referees’ statement. pic.twitter.com/q4aIq2paH9
— Scottish Football Referees (@ScotRefs) February 20, 2019
