In terms of the officiating, yesterday went exactly as we had feared that it would and it almost had a an impact on the result of the game.
John Beaton’s decision to give a penalty to the Ibrox club is at least debatable, although when Kris Boyd himself is arguing that it’s not actually a spot kick you wonder if we’re through the looking glass and into one of those parallel realities which are usually the province of the rabid Ibrox fan base itself.
On the Connor Goldson handball, there ought not to be the least debate in any corner of the land. Beaton’s decision not to give it, and Collum’s decision to support that by not even asking him to come and look at the TV pictures, is the sort of indefensible outrage that ought to put these people under real scrutiny. But that’s clearly not going to happen.
There are two reasons why it is not going to happen, and the first of them is that Celtic itself clearly has no intention of speaking out on this until there are clear consequences. I cannot articulate enough how angry that makes me. It is momentously stupid. The officials could have cost us points yesterday, and this title race could be wide open.
I am torn about our club at times like this. I know we try to operate behind the scenes, and I am sure we made our feelings known before yesterday and almost certainly afterwards. But it’s not enough because the PR battle is being fought in public and that’s where Celtic’s response needed to be before now, and certainly where it should be today.
The second reason it that the people who should be doing the scrutinising are not remotely interested in doing so. Some of them are afraid to leap into a debate like this because their own colleagues have characterised it as fit only for conspiracy theorists.
I’m sorry, but that’s an abrogation of responsibility. When you are witnessing such a clear pattern as this are you really going to stay silent because drawing attention to it would have you dismissed as a crank? That’s gutless. If you can see the pattern then you’re not a crank at all, are you? It’s those who are wilfully not looking who are the suspect ones.
Anyway, the other side is not shy about getting its point across.
Ex-refs, like Stuart Dougal, are being drafted onto the airwaves to defend the decision. Rulebooks are being scoured for the merest justification for it. And as with what happened over the Livingston “offside goal”, we’re losing the argument because these “alternative theories” are getting the mainstream coverage.
But if we had commented we’d be currently riding the wave of headlines. It is simply bad from a PR standpoint to cede the whole of the public sphere to the opposition. Let them get their version of events across and you might as well pack it in.
That we’ve decided on silence whilst a notorious anti-Celtic ex-official defends this disgrace is absolutely appalling. You cannot have failed to notice the number of ex-Ibrox players who are also being asked to weigh in. As neutrals, of course.
It’s no wonder we’re getting pulverised here. We’ve basically decided on a policy of letting ourselves get hit over and over again and not responding because we haven’t been knocked out. It’s a masochism strategy; how much of this can Celtic take before they crack? How much will the club absorb before those above the manager start asking public questions?
Public questions are the key here. Those decisions were watched by a vast TV audience and almost everyone in that audience knows exactly what it was that they saw. Celtic raising the issue puts these people on the defensive instead of the offensive, which is where they are right now and where, to be frank, they are making mugs of us.
These VAR ‘Problems ‘could be repealed overnight if Celtic FC decide that the cheating has to stop ! An official complaint by the club on headed letter paper ought to get the games governing bodies suits ,fixing their ties and blazers properly . Unfortunately until that time ,the two sets of rules set up of administering VAR, shall remain steadfast …
Cheat against us .
Get as many ex huns on the airwaves as you can to claim the decisions we’re not getting are the right decisions .
Then the papers twist the rulebook to claim it’s all above board .
Repeat
I think as long as both parks are full,Our board are happy with the business model ££££
James ” they are making mugs of us” ….you never made truer statement!
When BBC Scotland roll out anti Celtic people!Richard Foster) to justify not giving a penalty to us that tells you everything…..BBC Scotland in general are part of the problem.
It seems to me that the so called officials in this country are told not to award a penalty to the establishment team, as Hartson has said “embarrassing”
Every Celtic fan would have more respect for our board IF they called it out….cheating
HH
Celtic FC should never accept a bigot like John Beaton to be officiating at any of our games. It is that simple, and if the reaction to that would be to punish us in any way, then we challenge them in court. We know Beaton’s history, it would be a slam dunk in our favour and may then even lead to further scrutiny of the whole refereeing appointment system.
Operating quietly behind the scenes is all well and good, but at some point the power brokers at Celtic Park will have to realize that strategy isn’t working. If the SFA ignore Celtic’s private complaints, then it’s time for those complaints to be made public. If that results in a fine, it’ll be the best money Celtic will have spent this year if it finally puts enough pressure on the SFA to actually act.
Exit question: did Beaton celebrate yesterday’s result in a Rangers bar with Rangers fans buying him drinks (again)?
Agree wi that comment. Nae idea about the Beaton part tho.
When ye take intae consideration that in all this time, not one VAR decision has gone against the ibrox club in similar, or even more blatant incidents, when so many have gone against ourselves, that itself beggars belief. Would be interstin tae know if, in fact they’re the only club who have this ‘clean sheet’. Corrupt as fk and of course, the pathetic, desperate, hypocritical, disgrace of a media’ll ALWAYS stand by the ibrox ‘win at all costs’ mindset.
Sick to the back teeth blaming the Celtic board they don’t care the blue pound keeps rolling in.
We should go after the Celtic Board and not remain victims.
Celtic have been in discussions about the VAR decisions with the SFA before the Glasgow derby and have future meetings arranged. Trouble is you believe that Celtic just have to complain, have the evidence examined and it will all change. It won’t. If you think the refereeing and/or the SFA is down to incompetence then you’re the one being incompetent. It’s blatant, its been blatant for decades. So we have to follow a process and it starts with the SFA but be under no mistake the SFA have their own evidence in support of the refs and their decisions and they will be applied so skilfully that we’ll hit the brick wall again, as with all the previous decades. Don’t mean we shouldn’t try of course and we are.
I agree entirely with your comments and my view is there is a clear case of corruption being carried out here. This could lead to rangers winning the league and however unlikely that is, if the people who are being allowed to carry this act out, it is a possibility. The club and shareholders could lose in excess of £25-40 million pounds in revenue and maybe then, just maybe will the the stakeholders of Celtic act. But surely it is better to be proactive than reactive which is why the board need to instruct their solicitors to carry out an investigation and then demand consequences to the individuals. For example demote them for the rest of the season to lower leagues. This will hurt them in the pocket I assume. An alternative is to suspend them while an enquiry is being carried out but they would be paid in full and this would not hurt them personally in the pocket. This is what is needed, hurt the perpetrators in the pocket to discourage them from carrying out acts of corruption.
Celtic board must act NOW before it is too late for this season.
According to The Celtic Star, thr club have demanded a meeting with the SFA to discuss the refereeing of the game yesterday. I agree with you that they need to be more publicly vocal in their comments, but they don’t appear to be willing to let it pass this time
Ricky Foster’s allegiances are well known. Anybody who has heard Stuart Dougall on the after dinner speaking circuit will be in no doubt that this (impartial?) ex ref has strong allegiances with ibrox. BBC impartiality? Not on the vardict podcast.
Refuse to accept any official with previous for cheating , I know that narrows numbers down considerably.In life you have to do what you have to do grow a pair celtic before the support gets totally scunnered .
100% correct, James. Celtic need to make public statements NOW. Quite clearly anti Celtic decisions in way too many games
we all know that bent cnut beaston is a hun in and out of disguise , Celtic need to address this now more than ever , the green brigade should show a protest at every fixture stating the cnut will not ever ref a celtic fixture ever again , he along with the other sh!t he rubs shoulders with will get the message then !!
the CELTIC board needs to support the supporters , and when the people are pissin down our backs telling us it’s raining it’s not never ever gonna be good enough for us !!! get the furking rag out of yer h0le dermy desmond !!
If this was the rangers it would be in every news paper complaining about it and the rangers would be demanding answers from the SFA.
Remember Celtic are paying the largest part of this technology so why are they not demanding answers
Agree with your whole article
Unfortunately it backs up what I said yesterday
Welcome to life under Lawell pt 2
Disgrace
When acting quietly has no weight…shout it from the rooftops.
Surely there is a procedure within the constitution that allows a grievance to be put forward by member clubs given that there are numerous examples why the grievances are valid and thereby an enquiry has to be made to provide valid reasons why or why not the decisions made were correct/ incorrect.That means the individuals are called out to explain their action. This then would isolate and expose the crooked or corrupt actions by individuals. Consequences then are introduced to deter their future behaviour and perhaps a disciplinary system is put in similar to that where players receive suspension for repeat offences or immediate suspension for serious breaches. The issue is there is no open book system for poor or substandard refereeing.
A further comment I would make on the VAR officials hiding behind the office doors or the doors of a mobile unit is if we suspect the current VAR people are biased then there is the need to bring in intelligent unbiased skilled people from outwith Scotland which may go some way to provide a fair unbiased observation. Or at least introduce a match supervisor to observe the current biased people who are corrupt to the core and anti Celtic wherever possible.