A lot of what’s wrong with Scottish football can be traced right to the doors of the SFA.
This is an organisation that accepts no personal responsibility, and who’s officials get more protection from scrutiny than just about any others in Europe.
For years beyond count now, people have been calling for openness and transparency from these people, and we’re not one step closer to getting it.
Indeed, in a lot of ways we’ve gone backwards.
The last time we had a serious chance at reforming the way refereeing works in Scotland their community, still reeling from the suspension of Hugh Dallas for sending sectarian emails, spat the dummies out of the pram and went on strike.
The media, of course, found a way to blame Celtic for that.
As a consequence, these guys bought themselves virtual immunity from criticism.
The media largely goes along with that.
Managers can’t comment on them without sanction.
Clubs can’t ask hard questions without hysterical commentary accusing them of bitterness or worse.
What’s the result?
Predictably, it’s this; we have utterly useless referees in this country if they’re not biased.
We don’t dare push on that possibility, of course, because as some in the media have already stated, openly, we don’t want to know that for sure.
Over on Fields I wrote an article earlier this year called Around A Crooked Table, where I stated my wholehearted belief that at least one match in which I’ve had an emotional stake has been partly, or even wholly, rigged.
I’ve still got no reason to doubt that, and indeed much I’ve seen since I wrote that piece in May has only increased that belief.
Match-fixing would be astonishingly easy in Scotland.
That’s a hard truth few want to face, but I’ve looked into it in other countries and it’s astonishingly easy there.
We are mugs if we believe it’s never happened here.
Even England has had to face up to the reality of it; a high profile case inspired the writing of the article and ended in convictions for a number of ex-players.
One of them, Sam Sodje, who had played for Reading and Portsmouth, once punched Notts Forest player Jose Baxter twice in a match to get himself sent off, earning himself £70,000 from a betting syndicate which had put its cold cash on a red card in the game.
Nowadays you can bet on everything, from how many bookings to how many corner kicks there are in a match, and every level of the game is wide open.
I use an online betting company that offers wagers on games involving Under 18 teams and amateur sides in leagues so obscure it boggles the mind to think there’s someone at each match keeping the company up to date with the goings on.
Given the volume of bets those sites take every single day, it’s impossible to police these things adequately.
I’m sure that there are matches on which I’ve placed bets which have been rigged; there’s simply no way to know which ones.
Match-fixing involving officials has happened in almost every other country in Europe.
We’ve found no evidence of it in England, where the focus has been on players involved in scams, but the governing bodies would be naïve beyond belief to think that it’s not gone on.
It may still be.
Here in Scotland we have seen decisions that spark honest to God disbelief.
Few query the possible motivations behind them.
This is partly because our sports and media culture is peculiar in a way, because so many people are ready to put those bad decisions, or the complaining about them, down to local biases, but what if we’re way off?
What if that’s a smokescreen, behind which serious, financially motivated, cheating is going on?
Perversely, in allowing officials like Alan Muir to make glaring, unpardonable mistakes – and he’s refereeing the Hearts v Motherwell game this coming weekend after those decisions – without any explanation or sanction to him, we’re creating precisely the circumstances under which match-rigging or other such behaviours can grow.
That man should not referee a major game in Scotland again, period.
I’m not so much interested in how he might affect our team as in how he might have influenced games which don’t even blip on our radar, being focussed only on Celtic.
In recent years we’ve taken to calling inexplicable decisions against our club “honest mistakes”, with the heavy emphasis on the irony.
But I’ll tell you something, I worry that more and more of these calls are more dishonest than we imagine.
There is no push for these matters to be fully investigated.
Indeed, our media balks at the very suggestion that we’re not watching an honest game, but day by day the suspicion grows in the hearts of the supporters who pay their money, that something reeks.
Instead of doing something to assuage these concerns, the SFA allows referees to draw the veil of secrecy ever tighter.
Questions aren’t encouraged, even by those within the game itself, and criticism from that quarter is punished harshly.
Our officials are the most protected in Europe.
As such, the recipe for disaster is cooking away nicely.
James..I asked the question on another blog…but maybe you know….
Do the “Clubs” in Scotland have the power to introduce video replays at a game… as they do in Rugby ? Or does the SFA (pause to spit) control that kind of thing ?
It seems to me that its the only way to get clarity on ” Honest mistake ” incidents such as Muir’s against Motherwell.
I’m bitterly disappointed..but not entirely surprised…that Celtic FC hasn’t been more proactive over this.
Surely they should be highlighting it to the SFA….Its not as if it hasn’t been done before.
Jim Callaghan anyone ?
1 good stuff kick rite in the Balls will sort the problem Over nite..Its time Hoops fans dealt with this problem our selfs..I really do mean this..They’re going back to they’re wee lodges and laughing at us..Time for action is NOW
Anyone who complains about the Scotland rugby decision but doesn’t have a problem with Muir is a hypocrite! What with all the dodgy free kicks, penalties and added time the holding vehicle have been getting for the last few years, one would be forgive for thinking that officials in Scotland were biased as all hell. The fact that he has been given another top flight game after missing two huge decisions is evidence that honesty and integrity take a distant second place with the SFA. They are a disgrace and I only hope that the coming storm in the High Court washes them away with the detritus they cheerleaded into Scottish football four years ago.
The game in Scotland IS corrupt. Too many sinister decisions made against Celtic to simply have the old “honest mistakes” routine thrown at us or the paranoi card. . We are being cheated .Simple as that. Decisions made in semi final and against Motherwelll smell of bias . The game smelt when the Farry lies were proven by McCann. It stank after Dougie McDonald was proven to have lied and you can see the cover ups for Muir taking place. The whole of the refereeing fraternity now have no credibility if your a Celtic fan. In fact you can see this week the media have not came out to really challenge our accusations of cheating…they now know somethings up. My disappointment is with P Lawwell after the 2010 AGM statement by John Reid that As a club we would no longer tolerate being treated less than others. In other words… you cheat us and we will come after you. What has been done ? Zero. A ether of complaint after Inverness . Thrown in the bin by Regan and Co. My message to Celtic is this. Show some balls and take them to task. Otherwise accept that for the next hundred years you will be on the sharp end of further refereeing abuse purely because of who we are.
I may be labouring under a misapprehension here but didn’t old rangers (hiss)receive a fine from lns for some transgressions that remains unpaid,and didn’t Craig whyte ( bless him)receive same which also remains outstanding.the sfa have been given the finger by both old Rangers(boo) whyte (bless him) with no sanctions from said collection of muppets.point being if a manager came out with condemnation of a referee who made a conscious effort to ignore two blatant penalty claims and then told the compliance officer where to go in no uncertain terms what can the sfa do to enforce it.it’s time this can of worms was opened and some daylight put on their murky dealings.hh
John,
Be happy your post is on…
Mine got zilch.
HH
PS: Good post btw…
Seems I owe James an apology..I enetered wrong e-amil address first time…oops..sorry.
Anyway my beef was with our Club’s high heid yins.
They have to come out and demand sanctions for Muir’s actions..which are indefensible.
Its all vey well the support and all the “Media experts” pouring scorn on Muirs decisions..
He needs to be severely disciplined for this.
Jim Callaghan anyone ?
The standard of refereeing in Scotland has been dreadful for the past seventy years Iwould suggest that all football suporters of Celtic boycott away games that these perpetrators referee, they can-not beincompotent all the time there is a seperate agenda at work here there has to be a complete clean out of the entire sfa, and referee commities then introduce the players union to select ex players to be trained to referee matches then we may see ahigher standard of refereeing