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Madden’s Appointment For Celtic’s 2 February Game Raises Some Difficult Questions.

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The SFA has confirmed that Bobby Madden will take the 2 February game.

I have written about the referee for this fixture before, back when it was Willie Collum who was supposed to take it. In a piece on that particular whistler, I pointed out that he is, or was, the subject of an SFA investigation into irregular betting patterns.

I said the decision to give him such a high profile game was a huge vote of confidence.

What are we to make of his being removed from the fixture?

A vote of no confidence?

No, because he’s still getting top flight games, including against us.

More worrying is that Madden has gotten the gig.

He was one of the refs we were “concerned” about earlier in the season.

Indeed, some of us have been concerned about “Brother” Bobby for a lot longer than just this campaign.

As Joe McHugh of VideoCelts points out, this guy will have refereed fully one quarter of all our games this season come next Wednesday night, and whilst I appreciate that the pool of alleged “top talent” at the SFA is a shallow one, is it appropriate that a whistler that we have very clearly expressed our issues with gets that many of our matches?

Celtic will be watching him with great interest, and I don’t care what anyone over in La La Land says about that statement “putting pressure” on the guy. The guy has earned a special level of scrutiny.

Remember, we aren’t seeking favouritism; we are seeking basic fairness.

I know Ibrox finds that a difficult concept to grasp.

Celtic fans are often accused of paranoia. But we have good reason to be.

Look at Don Robertson, who now has the distinction of taking two matches against us in a single season where yellow cards have been turned into reds after vicious challenges went punished as lesser offences.

Robertson should never take a Celtic game again after what he allowed at the weekend.

Beaton, who took last night’s game, is another our fans have good reason to dislike.

But Madden is one of the few who’s been the subject of an official complaint by our club. That he has been handed such a high profile fixture really is an SFA vote of confidence in him … and a direct slap to our face.

If we want equal treatment from this guy we have to start applying the pressure and letting him know he’s being watched carefully, right now.

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  • John says:

    In all honesty James,does it really matter which one of them gets the game?.They are all cut from the same cloth.We are going to have to go about our business in a savvy manner next week and if we do I am confident we will win regardless of who is in the middle. We can’t afford to give him an opportunity to reduce our numbers like Bitton did last night.

  • Jimmy says:

    Should not make a difference. He might even send one of them off like he did with More or less. I’m very confident we are now a team superior to them, and the quality that we have will see us through.

  • Concerned Citizen says:

    With all the retrospective red cards against the opposition, if our board continues to remain silent!!!! Perhaps it’s time for the Celtic family to raise a petition , for an investigation into the SFA referee association !!!!

    Also if enough fans reported the assault on our players by the opposition to police Scotland, it would have to be investigated?

    Remember Duncan Ferguson!!!!!

    The SFA certainly wouldn’t welcome police or government intervention!!!!

  • David Tolmie says:

    Madden will be rank Rotten every touch on Kent Aribo down and free kicks to pile in the Box yellow cards early HH

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