The words “referees” and “strike” brought back some memories.
Back in 2010 the industrial action by the officials was very much connected to the strange case of Mr Hugh Dallas.
The chap from Bonkle was then the head of referee development at the SFA.
It was probably the first time that Planet Fitba had a pesky journalist who wouldn’t play to the succulent lamb rules.
Mr Dallas paid for his email “humour” with his job.
I think it is fair to say that his brethren with the whistles were not happy at his sacking.
This morning I spoke with a source who was backstage at Ibrox on the 29th of last month.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, he said that Mr Beaton was very buoyant and being “high fived” by his officiating colleagues.
Of course, this might be because they considered that their guy with the whistle had performed with Olympian impartiality throughout Sevco’s unexpected victory.
Moreover, I’m sure Mr Beaton conveyed that message in the dignified hostelry where he was photographed apparently joyfully carousing later that day.
I do hope that Police Scotland will have no trouble in identifying the person or persons who allegedly have threatened Mr Beaton.
In the digital age, the world-class law enforcement outfit which protects the citizenry of Fair Caledonia shouldn’t have any trouble in doing so.
Therefore, I look forward to the perpetrator (s) being brought to justice without any delay.
If Mr Beaton had a bad day at the office on the 29th then that is just that.
Human error is, well human and is largely unavoidable.
However, it is random and there is no discernible pattern.
What journalists should do, in serving the public interest, is to look for anything that is aberrant to that general rule.
If the inexplicably honest mistakes seem to have a context then they are not errors.
Currently, there seems to be a binary choice when assessing Scotland’s football officials:
Weapons-grade incompetence or something much darker.
The first can be solved with selection and training.
However, the second problem, if it is indeed extant, requires a massive cultural change and that is where journalism must serve the Public Interest.
What the Dallas email story showed that it needed a journalistic outsider to break a story of genuine importance in Scottish football.
This was not lost on serious media commentators in London.
Two years later, when the Rangers story exploded in 2012, the chaps in the Stenography Corps were under the sports desks quietly sobbing.
Here, James Forrest doesn’t miss on the issues of the putative industrial action by Scottish officials.
As I recently reminded you, dear reader, in the summer of 2012 the people in charge of the SFA were willing to burn their own rule book in order to facilitate the Ibrox brand.
Moreover, they did that even when they KNEW that there had been a decade of cheating emanating from the Blue Room.
That is how important Rangers, any Rangers, was to the chaps on the 6th floor at Hampden.
When you keep that in mind then referees are a mere detail in the bigger picture.
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I bet that if the SFA decided to follow their English FA counterparts and require our refs to declare their favourite team, not one would admit to supporting sevco rangers.
Just watched the Paul Larkin, ‘Anyone but Celtic’ contribution for the first time.
The relationship between the Lanarkshire Referees Association, the Masons and the Orange Lodge is undeniable.
It’s clear that unless you are a member of the brotherhood then you will never climb the greasy pole to Grade 1 referee. Thats a given.
No wonder the SFA fail to follow in the footsteps of their English counterparts where the officials have to declare their support of their favourite team.
It seems it would be quicker to name the officials who are not members of the freemasons than the other way round.
Didn’t realise that Farry intervened and made a late change to the referee on that famous day at Dens when Hearts lost when a draw would have won them the league.
Appointing a known Hearts supporting ref didn’t work, Farry must have been gutted.
Phil, you always write to a high standard but this short piece is exceptional.
Hat tip would not be enough.
Take a bow and for the first time ever – to anyone – I throw you the flowers.
The first head on the plate – so to speak – should be that of Mr John Fleming. Since being placed in charge of referee development, our refs have slipped down the FIFA rankings – so much so, that we failed to have representation at the last World Cup. Allied to this, the apparent comment attributed to Fleming about making things easier to identify in regards to the offside rule. Perhaps our refs are not entirely incompetent, or institutionally biased – an employee only follows the orders of line management. To fail to comply with an instruction from a superior in any walk of life usually lends itself to some form of disciplinary action, with the extreme end of that action being summary dismissal. If the manager of any business is found to be negligent or incompetent in his managerial duties, he/she is often “invited to consider the tenability of their position”. Mr Fleming should be asked to consider such an invitation, offered by Ian Maxwell. Once that is dealt with, immediate retraining of the officials should be implemented, otherwise the game, as they say, is a bogey!
How has it not been mentioned that Beaton might have been bunged by the Chinese betting consortium as he says he saw the incidents and took no action so why not maybe it’s because he was paid to take no action and he went to the sevco pub after the game for his payment HH
Phil; some observations on the above;
1) with regard refs, lack of training or something more sinister? Why can’t it be combination of both choices?
2) with regard media and “journalists”, same as 1 above.
3) importance of Rangers, any Rangers being in play? Believe Celtic board have similar thoughts as SFA on this.
4) you nailed it with the referees being the symptom of the overall issue. The SFA, and how it is run, is the disease needing cured.
Whilst agreeing entirely with the thrust of your article….I do not agree with your assessment that referees are a mere detail in the overall situation.
I do understand the gravity of the problem that you highlight with regards to the “High Heid Yins” abject running of the game in Scotland….and the cowardice and bias of our Media.
But to my mind….they are all intricate parts of the spider’s web….designed to trap our Club….and as such…all come with equal menace.
I firmly believe that we are “being tested” just now…to see how far we are prepared to take this and what we intend to do about it.
Given our Club’s track record so far on this type of situation…..I do not hold out much hope ….but maybe…just maybe….Our Board will prove me wrong.
And as I said before…We could be drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.
I think your “tested” comment might be scarily close to the mark. I think They’ve watched the complete inaction on Resolution 12 and decided, “This mob will do fuck all to rock the boat. If they won’t stand up for their club and their fans on something as major as being blatantly cheated out of a CL place we can do what the fuck we like!”
Sums it up nicely…!
Forrest complains about the press coverage continually, he never stops talking about one publication in particular. Stop buying it and encourage others in the celtic family to do the same. All he is doing is providing them with the life energy that is relevance. The Beaton incident is quite different in that evidence exists. There is a difference between a mistake/not seeing something, and saying that raking studs down a player’s back does not merit a yellow then and now. The after match incidents are open to interpretation. High fives and pubs are at best circumstancial. But his actions now constitute conscious and deliberate bias and I think that certain members of the SFA are embarrassed by Beaton’s transparency on this matter. There will not be a strike as that would draw attention to a whole series of issues both from proper journalists, and possibly UEFA.
Didn’t you read SG’s comments?More-or-less only protects himself! Now, obviously, he stamped on Ralston as he lay on the ground because he knew, from the position of Ralston’s prone body, that the Celtic Right Back was about to sink his teeth into a juicy Columbian ankle.
Gerrard KNEW it! More-or-less KNEW it, Beaton KNEW it! In fact Beaton contemplated booking Ralston for thinking about it.
This referees union thingy that has come out in support of Beaton, did they do the same after the Assistant Referee was downed by a coin a couple of months back? What about when Willie Collum was acused of bias against Sevco only a few short weeks ago?
I didn’t see their statement, or that of the SFA or head of referees. Again, I may have missed it amongst the rainforest of newspaper articles condemning the Sevco supporter or Sevco itself after the Collum accusations.
Picture this,
a totally inept Celtic supporting referee called Michael Benedict Eugene Patrick Fitzgerald Kennedy has a history of strange decisions in Celtic’s favour, he gets the Glasgow derby game and misses Scott Brown booting and stamping on several Sevco players. Celtic win, deservedly, even Sevco admit that but they are perplexed at the lack of action taken against Brown. After the game Michael decides to go for a drink in his “local” The Hoops Bar and poses with the happy natives.
Sevco issue a strongly worded statement that is careful not to stray into inflammatory language (I know! I know!) but seeks clarity on the decision making and a chance to question some of the bizarre refereeing decisions of late.
Do the media jump to the bold Michaels defence or demand his demotion or removal from top grade refereeing altogether?
Do the SFA issue a statement to deflect from Michaels poor performance let alone his choice of watering hole or do they have him “disappeared”?
Do the referees union express their dismay and shock in the fallout from a perfectly reasonable club statement and try to twist it back on the club? Or do they say nothing in defence of the interloping Fenian who somehow slipped through the net to become a grade one referee who gets Celtic games?
Does every single sports columnist in the land line up to crucify Sevco and their understandably angry supporters or do they condemn Michael for being utterly shite and, at best, a stupid irresponsible arrogant idiot for going to The Hoops Bar in the aftermath of the game?
We all know the answers and that is why the whole lot of them can shove their faux indignation up their Sevconian Sphincters.
Equally-
*If any idiot out there who attaches themselves to Celtic has threatened the inept referee and his family they should be hunted and charged*
Somehow I don’t think we will ever see proof of this behaviour, but we will never hear the end of how bad Celtic and their supporters are.
Excellent post MCG…well done.
This post is absurd………. NO ONE called Michael Benedict Eugene Patrick Fitzgerald Kennedy would be allowed to have their mouth anywhere near an SFA whistle!!!
Totally agree with the sentiment though.
I watch with baited breath to see if the SFA have anything to say about the purported comments of Beaton and Collum, albiet passed through a 3rd party anonymous source, mentioned in the daily ranker today.
Heresay isn’t permitted in law courts as judicial processes understand the Chinese whisper concept and it’s difficult to use inference as one can always deny and one cannot always be sure of the meaning “I’m gonna kill you ya…” Being one example.
However, there seems to be a distance between the compliance officers remit and the understanding of referees in their respective roles.
The SFA have largely shown a level of leadership akin to, well, nought really. We need the brass to have this upcoming powwow, all the respective powers to thrash out expectations and come to an agreement on where the path lies.
For me VAR is an unquestionable solution, on the spot reviews, replays played and refs allowed to change them immediately. It has its faults but as you point out Phil we all do.
I would like to condemn the actions of the idiots who threatened those connected to football in Scotland as this is deplorable and just plain wrong.
I also thought Anyone But Celtic was a bit cringe worthy in places too.
VAR would be fine and another level of measurement of the officials performance but you would have to ship in outsiders to run the show otherwise the bias that we saw on the 29th will just be regurgitated.
Is Maxwell on holiday whilst this furore is going on? If not where the hell is he?
He should be leading from the front.
Him, Fleming and Beaton in a dark room replaying the match action.
Beaton to confirm what he’s seen or not and Fleming to comment on what the appropriate measures should have been taken by the ref.
Bare in mind that not one of the other officials waved a flag or drew Beaton’s attention to any foul play that they had witnessed.
Not only did Beaton keep his cards in his pocket, he never even spoke to Morelos despite the numerous incidents he was involved in.
With various squirrels set loose ie. Infighting at the SFA or threats to the ref, the latter of which if true should take the police 5 minutes to round up any eejits involved, there is a concerted attempt in the media to overlook Beaton’s horrendous display and point the finger elsewhere.
Would be no surprise if Morelos goes in the window to see his departure linked by Gerrard/Rangers to his treatment from the officials and those over physical Scottish players which kinda flies in the face of the tv evidence from the 29th plus his previous get out of jail card where his red card was rescinded.
Does anyone know when the rules changed that allowed a player to kick another off the ball then be judged on the severity of the kick?
Beckham would have never been red carded if he had been fortunate enough to have had a Scottish referee.
Well written piece Phil.
In a perverse manner Morelos could have unwittingly helped Scottish football. No really!
The reporting of the derby game is now well into its second week, and with no signs of it being closed down anytime soon by the SFA.
Maybe – just maybe – a little chink of light is starting to shine on Hampden and the refs?
I know…but it would be a start.
Having just viewed,’Anyone But Celtic’ your comments affirm the views contained within,not exactly,but on the same track.
In ‘Unfair’ Caledonia the systemic cheating,mentioned above,is riddled throughout society in just about every way possible,not just football.
It’ll take a damn site more than a new sfa to go against ALL that has gone before,however,Scottish society will take a century or more to get anywhere near ‘normalcy’ if ever.
I find that so sad,I know I won’t return to live there,the everyday state of ‘Unfair Caledonia’ quite literally repulses and angers me in equal measure.
Thanks Phil, and you are correct in your assumption that the referees are a very minuscule part of th overall problem;it is way much more than that….🍀
If referees are biased against Celtic they’ve a funny way of showing it, as Celtic have racked up fewer bookings and red cards this season than any other club in the Premiership. Rangers are fourth in the disciplinary table behind the worst offenders, Hamilton, Motherwell and St Mirren. There have been numerous incidents like this in many Premiership, games, not the result of bias, otherwise Celtic would be at the top of the disciplinary league, not the bottom, rather the result of sheer incompetence on the part of many referees.
Lets ignore the bias and go with your incompetence theory.
Why are they incompetent, who is responsible, why are incompetents refereeing professional football where millions of pounds are at stake for winning titles and trophies and their decisions can also mean life or death to the club managers?
Brendan diplomatically mentioned full time refs in his recent interview.
He’s miles off the mark there. We would end up with full time refs making the same mistakes that the current lot do.
The introduction of VAR to Scottish football would see games stretching to 2 hours in some cases given the number of honest mistakes being made by the men in the middle.
Maxwell still in hiding, Fleming allowing his officials to be thrown under a bus, a disciplinary process which has collapsed with Scottish football playing to a different set of rules to the rest of the world.
There is no leadership at the top of the SFA executive.
What qualifications brought Maxwell into the top job? Ditto Fleming in his role.
Bryson, whose claim about the eligibility of the DOS/EBT’ers is laughable.
Alan McCrae, not allowed to leave the building without a minder in tow.
The paucity of talent is there for all to see.
What hold does Freemasonry have at Hampden?
Does the SFA/SPFL staffing policy reflect that the best candidate gets the job or are there other factors at play as clearly indicated in Paul Larkin’s ‘ Anyone But Celtic.’
I’m old enough to remember when the recruitment process for many jobs in Scotland depended on what school you went to.
Thankfully in most instances that barrier has been removed but as we are aware there are still areas of employment where membership of a secret society beats qualifications and experience hands down.