So we know the ref for the coming match.
It’s John Beaton.
He who was pictured in a Sevco bar after a game a few years back, celebrating with the locals.
The media has consistently tried to play this down as a minor matter, but I refer you back to the piece I wrote a week or so ago, which highlighted the comments made by Craig Levein where he said that everyone knows that Scottish football refs are biased.
The problem is, some folk pretend not to.
That’s why we run into these kind of problems and issues over and over again. I don’t think anyone who’s watched John Beaton down through the years believes he’s fit to be a top flight referee. Does it matter if he’s biased or just useless?
On one hand, yes of course it does.
On the other, I don’t think it could matter less.
It’s one of three things with this guy; he’s corrupt, or he can’t handle pressure or he just don’t understand the game and the regulations the way a Grade One official is meant to. I don’t want him doing one of our matches in any case.
It is ridiculous that the same officials get these big games again and again and again, even when they make colossal mistakes.
They continue to have the “confidence” of the SFA, which simply means that the system is one that the clubs are content to leave in place in spite of glaring holes in it. That the whole thing needs a massive overhaul is an understatement.
I know people who aren’t in the least bit worried about how Sevco might approach the game next week, but who are very concerned over what the officials might do. With the new handball rule, and the vague nature of it – leaving so much open to the “interpretation” of the refs and linesmen – it’s even more chaotic than usual. Add to that the ridiculous number of penalties Sevco has already been awarded in this campaign.
No wonder it is a major cause of anxiety amongst our support.
The question is, how long is the club going to go along with this, maintaining the illusion – for that is what it is – that these things “even themselves out” and that over the course of a campaign we get a fair shake of it. This is nonsense, as our fans know well.
I suspect that inside our club the same things are realised; why don’t we do anything about it though? We continue to pretend that this isn’t happening. We continue to flop around, going through the motions. Peter Lawwell; with power, but not in power. If he was, perhaps he’s use it for the club and the game’s betterment.
And so we accept. We accept John Beaton and all that comes with him. We accept that we might get screwed out of points or cups at some stage because Scotland either has the most bent or the most useless officials in European football.
When do we learn?
In fact, let’s ask that question in a different way; when do we learn enough so that we’re forced to act? Because that’s what it’s going to take, us being forced, and we know that will only occur when something so outrageous happens that there is no ignoring it anymore.
That’s what makes me angry here; the inevitability of this, and the certainty that it will temporarily galvanise the club when it comes … it will be too little too late. The time to act is before the storm hits. Not after it’s washed away everything you hold dear.