Should referees be made to declare their allegiance? Of course they should. It happens elsewhere but not in Scotland and we all know why…
Scottish referees are again under the microscope after a few high profile incidents at the weekend, and not just the ones involving the clubs who dominate the top half of the table.
Incidents in high profile game will naturally get more attention, but the standard of refereeing in our country is abysmal, it really is at an all time low, with every single club being affected at some point by the ‘incompetence’ of our match officials.
It’s a subject that’s been highlighted in the SMSM of course, but something they won’t dare to mention is the situation that exists between match officials, particularly referees and VARs in regard to which team they have or had allegiances to in their youth.
Most officials are known to lean favourably towards the clubs that calls Ibrox home, that’s a well known fact. It’s been that way since the existence of football in this country, with the forefathers of the current crop of officials having a strong affection with the now defunct Rangers FC.
I’m not naive enough to believe that none of them have an affiliation with our own club, and it would be daft to think otherwise, as we live in a small country, but on the whole the refereeing fraternity is that of a blue persuasion.
One way would be to force officials to declare what side they support, just like their counterparts down south, but the downside being that we would have very likely have no one available to take charge of any fixtures.
Or we would have an influx of St Mirren, Partick Thistle, and Clyde etc being listed as favoured sides, much like we see in the media from the likes of Chick Young and others. Another favoured option is to bring in foreign officials, but the governing body will never go for that.
Where are the match officials from Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and other places. The reason that the Aberdeen v Celtic game took so long to postpone recently was because the SFA could find a local referee to do the pitch inspection.
This Sunday for the Glasgow Derby both match officials are supporters of theRangers. That’s a simple fact. John Beaton and Steven McLean are Rangers supporters. Can imagine two Everton fans taking charge of the Liverpool Derby, or two Arsenal fans handling a match against Tottenham? Of a similar situation in the Manchester Derby? Not a chance.
Some thought VAR would clean up our game from the era of honest mistakes. How naive were they!
One things for sure, there needs to be a discussion over the impartiality of our match officials. It’s glaring obvious that there’s a problem, and it can’t continue to be ignored. Park this until Monday then we’ll do an update then the same a week later after another Rangers fan, David ‘Digger’ Dickenson gets his shot of the whistle, watch it happening…
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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All of a sudden every Referee in Scotland will support Arbroath or Stenhousemuir. Why would anyone believe that they’d be truthful?
Due diligence sorts that out. Even if it’s for the longer term it’s worth starting with new referees coming into the game now.
It doesn’t matter what team they support if they are members of the orange lodge or the masons they should be no where near a Celtic match
Plain and simple Celtic will never get a fair shake and the so called board do fuck all about it.
UNLESS YOU KNOW HOW OLD YOUR GRANNY IS, THEY W ILL NEVER LET ON ,?
SFA and their referees are mostly protestants, what do you expect.
Bringing in English referees could be the answer. Also Ex footballers.
there is 30 grade 1 refs in Scotland of which 7 refs and 10 asst refs are used in the SPFL ,,
what team they support won’t make any difference
what should be done is each ref get’s a minimum of 2 games per club
I mentioned this a few times . We , the fans , should have a go fund me type of fundraiser , hire a respected ex ref from England to attend our games , then compile dossiers on them , possibly a run over our “ rivals “ . Not sure where this would go , but possible international attention and a question of how many Scottish officials are invited to the World Cup and Euros ?
William Sean Collin a taig and former RE teacher ,the refs head honcho, seems content to preside over the application of VAR by his non Catholic colleagues .
Obviously a true Christian turning the other cheek.🤔