Yesterday was another abysmal refereeing display to look back on, one of those which leaves you scratching your head in bewilderment as if it to say “Did I actually watch that?” That’s how bad it was. Where do we get these guys from? Does the SFA produce nothing of note except corrupt executives and dreadful referees?
This is getting beyond a joke.
I ceased to care years ago whether we had biased refs or just absolutely useless ones.
It seems less important, actually, as time goes by. The only thing that matters is that the SFA keeps churning these guys out, abject performers who would not still have jobs with other associations. Some decisions are so blatant a blind man would have seen them.
Yesterday’s penalty call right at the end was one of those. It was a decision that wasn’t even close. The obviousness of it stood out a mile. Had it cost us our unbeaten run instead of merely two points the outcry would have brought down Twitter. Decisions like that – with the ref standing close enough that he could have moved the ball by breathing on it – can’t simply be waived away as if they were nothing. Refs should be made to account for them.
Brendan never slags refs, we all know that. Yet even he was furious with the decision and highlighted in his after-match interviews. When our manager feels he has to do that even the neutral observers know something stinks to high heaven, and this does.
Most Celtic fans can’t stand Collum and have hated his guts since he failed to send off Lee McCulloch in a fractious Celtic – Rangers game in 2010 where he famously, and scandalously, awarded them a penalty for an incident he couldn’t possibly have seen because his back was to the action. Only in Scotland could an official get away with such blatant cheating, which I have no hesitation in saying that was. Last season, during the Scottish Cup semi final, he allowed Beerman and Halliday to stay on the pitch for reasons passing understanding and hadn’t even been going to give the Sinclair penalty; it was, if you watch, his linesman who did that.
Probably worse than any of them – and I include the decision from 2010 – was earlier this season when he thought Steven McLean’s blatant assault on Kieran Tierney merited only a yellow card; on this website I described it as one of the most anti-Celtic decisions I have ever seen from a referee; it is unfathomable even now. I have watched the incident a hundred times and it is a red card offence all day, any day, every day of the week. I do not believe, not for one second, that he would have stayed on the pitch in a match against any other team.
There was another contentious point yesterday of course; Collum and his officials’ unseemly hurry to get the match over with.
Two minutes of injury time is plainly ridiculous, but this is a situation my old man has been highlighting to me for over a month now, the paltry time added on at the end of our games. Up until yesterday it was one of those things that was merely annoying; yesterday it was more sinister.
Even the most basic understanding of football regulations tells you that a game with four goals, five substitutions and numerous stoppages should have a minimum of three minutes if not four. This one ought to be queried. It’s not even up for debate.
This, in short, was a typical Willie Collum display.
There was nothing good to say about it at all.
When Celtic fans sing “Willie Collum, we know what you are” they aren’t kidding.
Abject at best and at worst outright corrupt, only in Scotland could this guy still get major games.