The red card for Nicky Clark that saw St Johnstone play against Sevco for 53 minutes with ten men has been rescinded.
No one on Planet Fitba with a working memory and the facility of reason is surprised
However, on the day it is job done.
Similarly, the Perth side SHOULD have been playing against ten men for 52 minutes of the match.
Ryan Jack was the beneficiary of another inexplicable officiating error that only seems to benefit the Ibrox franchise.
Dear reader, incompetence has no pattern.
As this season progresses, the “just crap at his job” narrative becomes harder and harder to believe.
What a functioning fourth estate should be looking into is whether or not a pattern exists.
Yesterday I was told some of the details of the recent sit down between representatives of Celtic and the SFA apropos their match officials.
I’m told that the SFA chap could not offer any explanations about decisions in matches involving the Parkhead club.
My understanding is that these included the penalty for handball involving Matt O’Riley against Ross county and the spot kick awarded against Alexandro Bernabei versus Dundee United.
Then I’m told that the Conor Goldson handball incident in the recent Glasgow Derby match was forensically analysed from several angles.
In all of the incidents, the SFA chap could offer no defence.
It was pointed out to the Hampden fellow that these were no longer split-second decisions.
VAR had created the opportunity to review the initial judgment on the incident.
The senior Celtic person then put forward the only two possible explanations for the officiating examples on the screen:
- Gross incompetence.
- Cheating.
This is the sort of thing that had the Bunnet getting lawyered up.
Of course, the late Jim Farry hindered Celtic over the registration of Jorge Cadete in order to assist the favoured franchise at Ibrox.
The SFA man just didn’t realise that the usual back of the bus stance in the Parkhead boardroom had changed.
It was a career-ending misjudgement by the ethnic brogue wearer.
This piece by Alan Morrison of Celtic By Numbers, published here last month, is worth your time.
As I noted then, this type of forensic, evidence-based analysis cannot be found anywhere in the mainstream.
The brethren in the Blue Room should be very grateful that the Stenography Corps in the Fitba Fourth Estate remain on message.
If they were actually journalists looking into this embarrassing shitshow, they would be guided by one question:
Cui bono?
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The Yorkshire Whistler said it wasn’t a red. He’s an experienced referee with no ties to Scottish football. The panel that rescinded the red is not made up of experienced referees, nor is there any obligation for anyone on it to know the rules in any great depth. They were however, reacting to noisy pressure from the media, fans and the clubs (three parties also not obligated to know the rules). The referee in question is a Principle Teacher of RE at an RC secondary comprehensive and is absolutely not a Rangers fan. You can’t just pick the arguments that suit you best, and will tell your audience what they want to hear, and claim to be better than anyone else.
“In organized sports, “Match Fixing” is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law.” – Wikipedia
“To protect football from match-fixing and safeguard the integrity of European football matches and competitions, UEFA’s Anti-Match-Fixing Unit works closely with the football family and broader sports community to promote integrity, raise awareness regarding the threat of match-fixing, and identify, investigate, and sanction any match-fixing offences” – UEFA
Might be time for UEFA’s Match Fixing unit to investigate.
The term “match-fixing” implies some sort of financial conspiracy.
What is extant in Scotland is a cultural issue around the Ibrox brand.
The late Jim Farry risked his job by delaying the Cadete registration.
It was future, not conspiracy, and he certainly did not seek to gain financially from his malfeasance.
Bringing greater diversity to the pool of match officials will definitely help the situation.
The last SEVCO player sent off in a league game was Jordan Jones (1/9/2019). It happened against us, we 2 nil up then in the 93 min Jones hacks down Bauar. Remember in the COVID year they had 3 (?) retrospective red cards, the games were won then the their punishment, not playing with 10men for X amount of minutes. No a one match ban in the next league game.
We are paying the most for the VAR, so we should be looking to outsource it to real and unbiased professionals to run therefore doing away with the hold the local refs have on it.
There was a further benefit to Rangers in Clark’s card being rescinded in that there won’t be any further review of Jack’s tackle.
Its pleasing that the club have met with the SFA but disappointing that one of our possible explanations is “Gross incompetence” when, as you point out, “incompetence has no pattern”.
I don’t know when this meeting took place but can anyone say there’s been any improvement, never mind the vast one needed to right the axis?
That’s the crux of the matter, we’ve raised concerns and written letters of complaint in the past but nothing changed and nothing was followed up.
I doubt the SFA will change, so what’s our next move or is it, as before, simply an exercise to damping down the fans’ anger and getting back to BAU?
Peter Grant commentating after Kyogos goal said ” they’ll be checking if Joe Hart was offside”. It was said as a joke but then again so is the SFAs use of VAR. Video Advantage Rangers.
Phil, something that’s been bugging me and probably all Celtic fans this season especially.
It’s perfectly understandable that teams with substantially lower budgets than Celtic turn up at Parkhead and get as many men as possible behind the ball at every opportunity and defend for their lives.
However what’s not acceptable, are you listening referees?, is that in every Celtic home game this season the visiting goalie takes as much time as he wants to put the ball back into play without a single yellow card being shown by the ref. It’s beyond ridiculous.
Between strolling from one end of the 6 yard box to another, picking up and resetting the ball, giving the ball at least one cleaning and anything else that wastes time, all whilst the referee watches on without flashing a yellow card.
It seems that the ref only reacts when the crowd start to raise the roof.
An early yellow for a goalie following in the footsteps of previous offenders will perhaps get the message over that it’s not acceptable.
Also worth noting that the Scottish football media appear to have nothing to say on the matter.
You have to wonder , if Daizen had instinctively used his hand(s) to protect his face last night , and the ball still ended up in the net … would that have been allowed to stand ?
I very much doubt it .
It’s worth noting that Scotland no longer supplies referees to UEFA for their various competitions.
It’s a very clear indication of what those outside the game in Scotland think of our officials.
I cannot remember the last time I left a game thinking ‘ wow! The ref played a blinder.
Joseph
You’re very much mistaken. The refs play blinders every week. “Didn’t see that, didn’t see that….”
Both Beaton Collum reffed in this season’s Europa and Conference Leagues but not the Champions League as far as I’m aware.
They clearly weren’t at the World Cup nor Euro 2020 and I can’t remember the last time a Scot appeared at a major tournament.
The bizarre excuse trotted out was that they hadn’t been trained in VAR, when this hasn’t stopped then in the EL and UECL but lets see if they appear in future now that they are.
The reason they aren’t on the UEFA list is that they don’t have experience of using VAR in their domestic league.
Are you beginning to see why VAR was brought in early ?
They are so self absorbed that, to keep the referees in line, they had to bring it in so they could continue their jollies abroad.
Yes Phil all very strange things going on.
Last night at Parkhead whilst the stadium was celebrating the first goal a VAR message flashed up on screen…
POSSIBLE FOUL IN BUILD UP
This was quickly replaced by another VAR message…..
POSSIBLE OFFSIDE
Our officials decision making is bad enough but VAR instead of giving clarity is a shambles in Scotland.
Luckily for Celtic the officials and VAR both missed Taylor clearly picking his nose just before he scored the first goal. Cue disallowed goal and a red card for the Celtic player!
PS…..I’m only half kidding given the quality of our officials, anything is possible.
It’s a stand out that The Rangers Captain is fast approaching 50 goals, from the penalty spot, while his fellow defender Golden glove has not coincided one, nor have the team in the SPL, playing with two keepers must inspire the defenders around them. Now how many dodgy decisions will they get to help them win a cup this year. Var is more of a joke than Hearts defending against them. They really are blind when it comes to the boys in blue.
Going to overtake Celtic says the new boy Beale. Hopefully he’s Bealing at the end the season. Over and out.
Where do you begin with this stuff ?
Last night Goldson, once again, handled in the box…” No pen.” said Sevco’s favourite ref…
Fair enough ?…
But wait…No VAR reference ?…No checking to see if it was a Pen ?
Now come with me to Celtic Park…
Kyogo scores a lovely goal after a wonderful pass from O’Riley…
But wait…Haud the bus…
VAR thought that O’Riley had fouled an opponent to win the ball…He hadn’t…Check over…
But wait again…Haud that bus again…
VAR thought Kyogo was offside when collecting the ball…He wasn’t…Check over.
Paranoid…??…We’re no paranoid enough !!
And someone on here keeps reminding Sevco that if ye canny be good…be lucky.
Oh wait…that would be me.
Finally…as I said before…It will take Football Managers to bring these anomalies to the fore…
‘Cos the Fourth Estate won’t .
Every fan in Scotland thinks their club is hard done by refereeing (& VAR) decisions.
Every fan in Scotland (outside Ibrox) knows it is highly probable that refereeing (& VAR) decisions will favour Rangers except when game is dead.
The unbelievable penalty count for and against Rangers is not justifiable and statistically impossible.
This reminds me of a study undertaken by a Statistics student at Strathclyde that showed that Rangers meeting Celtic outwith Final in Cup only once between 1964 & 1990 (before draw televised) and meeting 7 times in final was statistically impossible.
Plus ca change!
If you saw their game last night, Ryan Kent with the most obvious dive you will see, Beaton couldn’t wait to point to the spot. VAR did over turn it and Kent was booked but Beatons initial reaction was telling
Yeah….I saw that Paul.
Tells us all we need to know.
Telling of the exact thing you happen to think anyway? Funny that.
Sure it’s not telling if the fact that Kent is actually generally very good at luring opponents into fouling him and that when he goes down like a tonne of bricks, he generally has been fouled?
Just like Messi and his compatriots were very good at this in the World Cup, resulting in more penalty awards than any national team has ever received in any finals.