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Daily Record Suddenly Realises We Have A Refereeing Problem As Honest Official Plunges Spanish Game Into Crisis

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A dead-on honest official has plunged Spanish football into turmoil this week by going to the police with a sensational story; he claims that he was called to a meeting where he was told that the coming El Classico was to be rigged in favour of Real Madrid, and that he and his colleague running the other line were to make the major calls as this would protect the referee from scrutiny.

This story, which has erupted overnight, will cause mayhem in Spain, where the derby match is about more than just football; it is about identity, culture and politics.

The match, due to be played next month, is now at the centre of a huge anti-corruption probe, with investigators said to be taking the claims extremely seriously.

They centre on an as-yet un-named official, who claims the Spanish league’s head of referees asked him to give decisions favouring Madrid.

The refereeing head claimed he was under pressure from his own committee and the Spanish FA to make sure the game swung in favour of the Real team.

The official refused. When he was put under even more pressure, he went to the police.

At the start of the season, the Atletico Madrid manager, Diego Simeone, told the media he believed Madrid would be helped to the league title, saying that it was “dangerously prepared” for a Real win, because the club had only won a single title in seven years.

In Spain, such talk is not readily dismissed, nor is it ignored in Italy and Germany, where they have long experience of such things.

In England, officials have yet to be caught in match-fixing scandals, but players have stood trial for their own scams and schemes.

Here in Scotland, such talk is completely ignored.

This scandal, of course, comes hot on the heels of a truly deplorable refereeing display in the Motherwell-Celtic game at the weekend, when Alan Muir failed to spot two clear-cut penalties and didn’t take action against several Motherwell players for shocking tackles.

Yet it took until yesterday morning, in the aftermath of some meaty challenges, which drew no official sanction, in the Sevco-Livingston cup tie on Tuesday – against guess which team? – before our media discovered there was a problem.

That’s three full days of utter silence … and now, with Sevco howling in the background because of, ironically enough, Andrew Dallas, The Daily Record suddenly says we have a refereeing crisis.

Nice of them to get to it, at long last, but their sudden interest in this subject is just another reason no-one in the Celtic Family buys their newspaper.

Still, the debate over our dreadful officials has caught fire at last and perhaps this time it will go somewhere.

It’s just a shame that, once again, a truckload of decisions were ignored and disastrous refereeing displays tolerated until something incurred the wrath of Ibrox.

What concerns me about that, beyond the obvious, is that by focussing on the wrong questions you’ll most likely wind up with the wrong answers.

Our refereeing problems go beyond simple incompetence.

This won’t be resolved by saying officials should protect Sevco players better, or that these decisions “even themselves out.”

That old aphorism is so much vomit at the bottom of the lavvy on a Saturday morning.

Our officials get too much protection from the SFA.

Those who screw up should be warned. Those who continue to should be drummed out of the game. I don’t want to hear this continuous nonsense about them being “only human” and entitled to mistakes. Air traffic controllers are only human too. How many mid-air collisions should we allow for in a career?

Above all else, we better start taking the issue of corruption and match-fixing seriously here.

The media has been extraordinarily lax when it comes to these issues.

When players were being disciplined for gambling on football matches their response was scandalous. They made excuses for them, instead of condemning this activity as posing an existential risk to sporting integrity – a concept they’ve never given a damn about anyway.

The more I look at their conduct the more I think our media is actually dangerous to the sport.

If it were up to them we’d live in ignorance about all kinds of things.

In Spain, at least, one brave and honest official has blown these issues wide open, and the media is reacting accordingly, supporting calls for a full inquiry.

They might even get it.

But it’s another shameful affair in a game mired in disgrace at the moment.

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11 comments

  • Brian says:

    The problem.in this country is that only sympathetic officials would be hand picked for that type of game so the chances of a whistle blower is remote. Bias whether unconcious or deliberate is clearly there but proving it is v v difficult

  • Anderson onosis says:

    I’m not suprised at this news at all because RMadrid is know all over the world as the club of the establishment,the club of the spanish royal family.The have always received secretly but huge financial and material gift from the government.

  • Andrew says:

    our media and footballs governing bodies should have been demanding to see Ally McCoists list of players he knew were betting on Scottish football, I’m still waiting for the news ?

  • Gerry Graham says:

    Get Allan Muir to referee it..They wouldn’t know the Difference between him and a crook

  • Tom says:

    For years we have been saying our referees were either corrupt or totally useless. Nothing whatsoever done. Media now wake up to it because Sevco complaining about tackles and Hibs getting soft penalty. You couldn’t make it up. They said we were paranoid as things have shown in last few years not paranoid enough.

  • jas says:

    Had it been a Celtic player who was caught betting, he would’ve been hung, drawn and quartered by the SFA and MSM, yet another decision Deidco got away with, there is no end to the corruption on our own doorstep, not to mention European licensing and/or 5 way masonic agreements.

  • joe says:

    I’ve always said that referee corruption is rife throughout European football. I’ve lost count of the decisions that favour the teams from the big 4 European nations. Teams from the smaller populated countries are not wanted in the later stages of the major competitions. Teams from Scandinavia, Scotland, Belgium, Switzerland, the Slav nations etc will never be allowed to eliminate any team from England, Germany, Spain or Italy. My belief is the sponsors and advertisers won’t accept it. We’re allowed to eliminate each other, but the big clubs must go through when playing a “minnow”. In recent years I’ve witnessed Amorosso (Juventus), Giggs (Man Utd) and Eduardo (Arsenal) all dive to win penalties against Celtic at vital stages in the game when the home team are finding it tough going. It’s not just Celtic that have been on the receiving end of some outrageous refereeing decisions when playing a seeded outfit, but teams from across Europe have witnessed the same problems. The referees and Linesmen are the people charged with making sure the expected/required result is assured.

  • Tim4eva says:

    I have sympathy for football supporters in Spain, we have had it here for years and more in recent games than I care to remember where poor officials have failed, whether intentional or not, to give decisions for Celtic.
    The hand ball incident against Inverness being one recent bad decision and a similar clear cut hand ball against Motherwell, not to mention the clear cut penalty for bringing down Scott Brown in the box.
    If officials are missing these important moments then they are not qualified to referee a game and they should bring in video evidence, they stop play in other sports to consult replays so why not football.
    Only reason I can see that they would be against it is that it would make it harder for currupt officials to influence games.

  • Love the hoops says:

    Could not clean my arse with daily lier ranger news

  • Jim says:

    How would a whistleblower be treated by the SFA?

    Steven Craven received a lifetime ban for refusing to be part of a lie.

  • Brian PAGCSC says:

    Couldn’t agree more young James.

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