As regular readers will be aware, I believe that a vital function of any functioning Fourth estate is to hold power to account.
Since I started writing about the issues around Scottish football here in 2008, it has been shamefully apparent that this is not how the mainstream media in Scotland views their role.
Instead, it is to provide free PR for the favoured franchise at Ibrox.
Indeed, they constantly authorise all of my harshest assessments of them.
Today it has been a particularly unedifying sight to observe the local media trying to explain away the Goldson handball incident.
This reeks of a Fourth Estate ending itself out of shape to ignore the glaringly obvious.
Then there is this from the man who, in the past, gushed that there was a billionaire at Ibrox:
This further reinforces my belief that only outsiders can action the cause of fairness in Scottish football.
In this, Fergus McCann was an outsider, as were the HMRC inspectors, bona fide journalists based in London and, if you will permit me, your humble correspondent here in Dún na nGall.
For the avoidance of doubt, there ARE journalists in Scotland who know the truth about the cosy relationship between Hampden and Ibrox and the local media’s role in facilitating that arrangement.
However, because of where they work and where they live, they know that obedient silence is the smart move.
The late great Turnbull Hutton was asked on the steps of Hampden to characterise Scottish football.
He simply used a single word that started with “C” and ended with “T”.
He was inside the tent, and he spoke truth to power.
The chaps at Hampden couldn’t handle that.
When I look at the featured image of this piece, I think of my friend at his rest eternal in the Kingdom of Fife.
Unlike Alfredo yesterday, he wouldn’t miss this open goal.
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Penalty awards for dominant teams dating back SIX years.
Real Madrid +15
Barcelona +12
Munich +10
PSG +22
Celtic +8
Rangers +33
Honest Mistakes have an impact.
It’s not okay to ‘be okay, we’ll win anyway’.
The game in Scotland has always been “rigged” to favour one team- and we are all happy enough to – literally – buy into it. For as long as we are happy to pay top dollar for season tickets, merchandise, etc, this farce will continue.
Imagine, if you will, that ABBA were going to reform, and tickets for the show are priced at £100 a skull – but simultaneously, the ABBA avatar show was playing on the same day – also at £100 per head… who in their right mind will pay the same price to watch a 3D hologram of Annafrid, Benny, Bjorn, and Agnetha “miming” to a prerecorded soundtrack, when they could pay the same amount to watch the real thing?!!
What we are being served, with the blessing of the Lanarkshire Referees Association, the Scottish Football Association, and the Scottish Professional Football League, is the footballing equivalent of the ABBA avatar show. Time to bring these con artists to heel, I think!!
If Bobby Madden can leave Scotland and ho and ref down in England, why can’t the SPFL hire their own refs from across Europe and tell the SFA that we won’t be using your refs anymore. It would mean that the SFA refs would only ref games in the Scottish cup
Here is one way to bring about cultural change amongst Scottish referees.https://sentinelcelts.com/2022/10/16/calling-out-the-refereeing-cabal/
Making the conversation between Referee and VAR assistant available is another way to bring transparency.
The Celtic board has always been Weak sadly
If some in the media know of the cozy relationship then so do the powers that be at Celtic.
If Fergus was still in power VAR would be used to enhance the game in Scotland and not the farce we are watching.
The late Turnbull Hutton spoke the truth on the steps of Hampden (which by the way he was never called to task on)
Welcome to life under Lawell pt 2 folks
That breaks my heart.
Meant to say…and be honest here…Did you..like me…with 10 minutes to go….hope and pray for 10 minutes extra-time?. ..Then,when we equalised, .hope and pray for 2 minutes extra-time…??
Absolutely lol
Are our officials cheating, hopeless, or both?
Goldson clearly plays the ball with both hands whilst protecting his face, it’s indisputable but neither the ref, nor the VAR official didn’t see or chose not to see what the rest of us did.
Of course the Scottish media also have an eyesight problem where their team of choice is involved.
In a nutshell that’s why Scotland has no officials at UEFA or FIFA matches.
That says it all for me.
The worrying thing for me is that these Grade 1 officials are the cream of the crop apparently which in itself is frightening.
Really, is this the best we can do? There is something far wrong with the official production line if this current crop are indeed the best we have.
However there seems to be a protective wall around these decision makers.
Is it too much to demand from Hampden or Park Gardens a weekly review of controversial decisions which will either back the officials call or not.
Why shouldn’t we expect games to be won or lost based on skill and proper goals rather than mistakes made by the men in the middle or the guy on VAR?
Celtic supporters have to keep keeping records of this. The Scottish Sun reported about penalties on 2nd December 2021. They said that in 5 and a half seasons since 2016 Rangers won most penalties (41) and conceded fewest (17).
In contrast Celtic were awarded 36 with 18 against. Whilst this seems close the context is that in this time Celtic won 41 more league points and had a goal difference which was 91 goals better.
If Celtic don’t get more decisions when they are superior then it appears they never will.
So The Rangers got 41 penalties and Celtic 36? That does not matter a jot, How many of these penalties were gamechangers for these two teams? That is what really matters.
I know what you are saying and its the same with red cards, a decisiom at 0-0 means more than one at 4-0. That takes more analysis however and human judgement also comes into play.
Proving that Rangers get more penalties, and concede fewer, season after season, regardless of whether they finish first, second or third would make it clear to everyone that something was up. No different to pay audits or prison sentances that show unfairness on gender or racial lines.
Celtic haven’t played since they beat Dundee United 9-0 and nothing has been done about. James Forrest has scored 100 goals for Celtic but only two against the club from Ibrox. Let that sink in yet Ange preferred him to Jota for this game. Surely to God, Kennedy should have put him straight and therefore he must go.
Angeball doesn’t work against decent teams as we have seen in Europe so something has to change.
I don’t think Ang is the answer and it looks like we missed out big time with the guy now at Newcastle.
Not expecting this to get published and I respect that but I have get this off my chest.
Forrest was played from start as he is our most experienced winger, and the one who is best at tracking back, and was in front of a debutant inexperienced in Scottish football, and Glasgow derbies in particular; maybe Ange knows more than you.
There has to be a way of addressing this through statistical probability. This is really not a difficult question to address. Generally speaking, attacking teams with a greater share of possession in games are likely to be awarded more penalties. You could look at league position, goals scored relative to other teams, games won, and a few other factors. Obviously the VAR issue cannot be specifically addressed for the moment. But it is time to address the penalty issue itself numerically, and then raise the question with real data as an interesting “statistical anomaly”. In the EPL Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal,Chelsea, Man City lead the way over the history of the EPL. None of that will surprize you. Major and minor European leagues will follow that pattern. I think. I do not know. Get an expert to do some number-crunching and then we can all cancel our treatment for paranoia,
Now that we have VAR,
we also need the players to start wearing sensors, so that any handball is automatically flagged up.
Then, replace the Scottish referees with robots, who can only make consistent decisions.
Sorted.
A level playing field for all clubs in the SPL!
🙂
How do we know the robots urny in the Masons though…??
I have never wanted to prescribe to the conspiracy theory but when you compare the Goldson hand ball to some of the penalties awarded against Celtic in the past few years it certainly makes me wonder.
It’s not even whether or not it’s a hand ball is the issue, the issue is the ref should have been told to look at it.
The whole thing stinks.
If you dont think ref/football authorities/journalists can influence games then look at the netflix doc on the Italian football scandal.
Then there’s the stats, 0 penalities against Rangers in 20 games in Scottish football, 4 in European ties.
That alone should see proper journalists asking real questions.
Then there are the stats from the last 3 years….
As I said, the whole thing stinks.
The most corrupt league in the world and our Board says and does nothing about it….
That is simply not true.
What do you expect them to do?
What they are doing is checking all incidents then seeking advice of independent professional to establish if rules applied properly and where not, take those instances to SFA to challenge.
A meeting has been scheduled according to Daily Record.
Think about it. To do nothing would make it impossible for Celtic to attract quality players and quality managers.
It constitutes a threat to Celtic’s future and so The Board’s existence. Do you really think they would not react to that danger?
In the past they would try and hide it, now its done in plain sight. We have absolutely no chance of having anything change.
As always it makes me think