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Who Else Thinks It’s Odd There’s No Major Media Inquest Over These Scandalous Decisions?

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Remember that article I wrote that said bad decisions don’t “even themselves out” over the course of a season, because a decision in a cup final is a thousand times bigger than one in a league match which means nothing? I stand by it, which is why I don’t look for “justice” in these things.

What I do look for is basic fairness in how those are reported.

Our cup final “decision” was the subject of press attention only as long as it took for Motherwell to wail about another one, in the league game at Fir Park. Then the media wanted a full-scale inquest into Scottish refereeing and the poor standard thereof.

Every day, it seemed, there was a discussion going on about the “morality” of going down in the box. Celtic decisions were studied like the Zapruder Film. Every angle of every incident was examined as if it held the answer to the secrets of the universe.

Panels on TV and radio shows leaped to condemn our players and accuse them of cheating.

In the aftermath, Sevco has benefited from two diabolical decisions about which barely a media whimper has been raised. Neil Lennon was appalled last night when a penalty was not given to his team in their game with the Ibrox club, but he was no less disgusted than Owen Coyle was at the weekend when another blatant decision went in Sevco’s favour.

Where’s the inquest now? Where are the endless TV replays? Where are the editorials demanding a better standard of refereeing? Neither Ross County nor Hibs has demanded an inquiry, that much is true, and neither have their backroom staff toured the media rooms with a laptop to replay the incidents over and over again, but there were hacks at these games and the manager’s comments in the aftermath are on the record.

So I’m just curious why there’s not been an outcry.

Because the race for European places is wide open and the relationship between Sevco fans and their board also hinged on those matches, and I would stipulate that this made those important ties, especially last night’s with the gap so narrow between the teams in second, third and fourth.

Maybe I’m just being impatient.

After all, the Hibs decision was only last night.

Maybe the next two days will be full of talk about this, and we’ll get the replay from 100 angles on a continuous loop on STV.

And then again, maybe not.

The thing is, the Ross County one was at the weekend and I didn’t read a single editorial on it over the last few days, which I find kind of strange considering the number of them which popped up after we won the penalty which secured us a draw at Fir Park.

Perhaps it’s too much to ask. The press, after all, has had other things on its mind, such as trying to sell Moussa Dembele and unsettle Leigh Griffiths … and yesterday Tom English decided that it was his job to act as judge, jury and executioner of a cyclist who failed a drug test.

More on that later, you best believe it.

What I’m saying is that I understand these people have been busy … but I suspect that if these decisions had gone against teams playing against us you’d have heard, and you would definitely be hearing, a lot more about them.

 

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