Eight days ago, I wrote to the SFA press office.
Hello
I am a journalist (NUJ Press Card attached).
Are SFA Grade One match officials required to declare their club allegiance to your association?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
NUJ Press Card # 0898546
It is normal for such an inquiry to be answered timeously by large organisations like UEFA.
Even if the initial reply is merely to acknowledge the original email.
Obviously, viewers in Scotland have their own programme.
So I sent another one today:
Hello,
I refer to my email (Feb 16) eight days ago apropos SFA match officials.
Do you intend to provide me with an answer?
No doubt, in another part of the fitba multiverse, a courteous reply has already been provided.
The match at the national stadium on Sunday will attract a global audience.
One of the things that the SFA have to get right is that the match officials are the best they have.
Part of that is that everyone acknowledges that those in an officiating role are beyond approach.
That is inevitably a matter of trust.
As Alan Morrison of Celtic By Numbers has often pointed out, in order to build that fragile commodity, you must first remove doubt.
The match referee is Nick Walsh.
It is no secret that during the week, he is a PE teacher at Boclair Academy. I’m told that this fine educational establishment has, among its student body, the Sevco stars of the future.
When I pointed this out to a buddy who covers the EPL, he sent me this message:
Everyone down here can’t believe your refs are part-time and can referee the clubs they support.
At this juncture, some wisdom Fair Caledonia’s beloved bard seems appropriate.
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!
Indeed so…
On Sunday, the chap in the VAR room is Mr John Beaton.
All hiding in plain sight.
Dear reader, that which is cultural is not amendable to reason.
For the avoidance of doubt, this selection by the SFA puts Messrs Beaton and Walsh in a highly invidious position.
The featured image is a highly likely outcome.
Conversely, any notion that the favoured franchise would concede one seems unlikely.
The events of 2012 are prima facie evidence that those who run the national game in Scotland see the Ibrox brand as essential regardless of what has been committed by the brethren in the Blue Room.
If the SFA do finally reply to my question, I will, of course, publish them here.
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Was it really necessary to portray our national bard wearing a masonic apron? What has that do with corrupt refereeing in Scotland?
In his defence (from a neutral’s point of view), I thought Walsh had a very good game today. Certainly no bias and seemed to catch almost everything, unusual for Scottish refereeing. Your point does still stand though, and thankfully it wasn’t a game with VAR drama!
I completely agree with your assessment of the referee today. However, that just MAY have been because the entire world was watching. I suspect, when we return next weekend to the bread and butter stuff that no one outside Scotland gives a rats arse about, normal standards will be resumed.
In my youth I knew a couple of referees who worked their way from the lowest levels to the top professional league in Scotland.
Not easy if your name denotes your background or if you were not a fully paid up member of a certain organisation.
Both lost their jobs following decisions made in games where Rangers were involved, decisions not to the liking of the Ibrox club.
For the life of me I cannot remember a similar instance for an official to be removed from the top of the tree following a bad decision given against Celtic, God knows there have been plenty of them.
Even now in the VAR era, instead of assisting the officials in making the correct decisions, we still witness glaring mistakes from the men in black.
Of course a Scottish football media would be all over this………I’m still waiting but not hopeful in regards to that.
Irvine Welsh summed up Scotland to a tee – “ The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization…”
Welcome back Ralph!
That’s an amazing stat about penalties awarded in the SPFL. None, bloody none against the Ibrox club!
Is there another league in Europe where one of the top two teams have not conceded a penalty so far this season?
I suppose on reflection that it’s quite understandable in Scotland given that the referee in question would no longer be welcome in his local Masonic if he had indeed awarded a penalty to the away team at Ibrox.
You.ve as much chance as the old firm fc NOT getting a penalty tomorrow at hamp den ..or their captain NOT finishing spl TOP scorer…
Could you get the union to help in this matter? Maybe if more journalists got together and sent a combined email the SFA might be forced to answer. Strength in numbers. Also, could you as a union petition UEFA to get you an answer? Keep at it.
My mate tonight said he betted Celtic 4-0. Of course I stated no, depending if the Bhoys turn up on Sunday. 4-1. The Sevco penalty when they’re aiming at arms with the ball in the box.
As a mere paying punter,
I gave up asking the SFA reasonable questions a long time ago via their sole, generic “info@” email address. Never received any replies or acknowledgments of receipt.
And that just reinforces the perception of an insular, parochial, incestuous environment at the SFA.
Outsiders – and their questions – are strictly not welcome!
We actually have our very own “rednecks” at Hampden – but we generously label them “Blazers”.
Let’s see what nonsense the SFA and their inept / corrupt match officials serve up on Sunday.
Change and improvement: they’re not in the SFA vocabulary.
It’s a very simple question which requires just a single word answer but clearly too difficult for the SFA to deal with.
Hi Phil
It would be interesting to see the awarded penalties to each of these teams for the same period.
Phil, the SFA do not reply to emails or answer phone calls. You’ll be waiting a LONG time
Wouldn’t hold your breath awaiting a reply
After reading your statement remember that change is fear because they have covered issues up in the passed now and will do in the future not only on the issue of which clubs there staff support of which religious beliefs they have so easy option have a ex ref from other UK countries Wales England to be on var there will still be mistakes like in England s Premiership but no were near as many but this won’t happen because it will expose a failure
You won’t get an answer to that question. Don’t forget that the law of handball doesn’t apply to the Jar men.