If People Think Celtic Got A Dodgy Decision, Let’s Investigate Refereeing.

The wailing and the whining has gone just as we all thought that it might; Celtic gets one decision and everyone is suddenly screaming “conspiracy” and Sevconia – which was dismissing the idea that refs are biased just a fortnight ago – is calling out the SFA.

The Motherwell manager said we get favourable decisions, which is as close to alleging bias as anyone in the game now dares go. In the meantime, Robbie Neilson screams at two scandalous decisions yesterday which spared first Aribo and then Bacuna from deserved reds.

There is grey area in the Motherwell handball, and I remember thinking watching it that their player had handled the ball first. Now footage appears to show that he did. So that decision is actually more contentious than I thought.

There is no doubt whatsoever about the two at Ibrox, they were red cards all day every day.

Joe McHugh at Video Celts claims that it’s been 22 months since they had a player sent off in a league game. I find it easy to believe.

Motherwell are furious and Hearts are furious.

Neither club, I’ll bet, wants to actually do anything about it other than have a wee moan to the media.

But if both believe they’ve been the victims of bias, and both managers are pretty clear on that, then their clubs have a responsibility to take that up with the governing body.

So too do the clubs whose fans are moaning and alleging all manner of things.

There seems to me only one viable answer; let’s investigate the matter fully.

Let’s get it all out there.

If refs aren’t willing to give decisions against “the big two” then that’s just a conspiracy of another kind and I’m no more comfortable with that than with any of the other explanations and theories.

And so something ought to be done about it. I know our fans want it.

I know our fans have been saying for years that all this stuff needs to be looked into, so who’s with us? Motherwell fans from yesterday who think your team was robbed; it’s speak up time and we’re on your side in wanting to see this brought into the light.

Hearts fans, do you reckon you were blatantly done over at Ibrox yesterday? Then we want you to make your voices heard.

Ibrox fans, do you think we were let back in the title race by a dodgy outcome?

Then you, too, should make yourselves heard to your club and demand refereeing reform, something that clears the decks; declarations of which teams these people support, a process which doesn’t have a former season ticket holder at one of the Glasgow clubs atop the compliance panel … a fair system that works for all the clubs and not just a handful.

I say again, Celtic fans have been screaming for this … so let’s see who’s serious about it.

Of course, VAR would have sorted out yesterday’s incidents quite well.

The Motherwell decision would have ended in a free kick to Celtic for the handball before Bolingoli’s. The incidents at Ibrox could not have been defended had officials watched them more than once and both would have resulted in red cards.

Perhaps that why some people don’t want them properly looked into, why some people are happy to snipe from the side-lines. Perhaps it’s why VAR itself is still up for grabs and not a lock and why some clubs might not necessarily want to see its implementation.

On this one, Celtic fans have been leading the way for years. If you think refereeing in Scotland is either hopeless or hopelessly biased we are your friends, because we’ve been arguing that for a long time and demanding change.

What the Hell have you all been doing?