It’s the debate no-one in Scottish football seems to want to have, but I think the walls are closing in on those who are dead-set against referees here having to declare their allegiances before they get games.
The measure has been adopted across Europe.
It happens in England and at every level of elite football. UEFA will not let a Scot referee games involving one of our clubs in the Champions League; why not? Because of the possibility he would not be impartial.
They take no chances at all.
Yet our media refuses to engage whenever anyone brings this up.
This stuff is so commonplace now that, paradoxically, you have to look really hard to find a report about it. Because people take it for granted. It’s no longer newsworthy.
The systems have been in place for such a long time that it would amaze people in other countries to find out that we have yet to adopt them here at home, in our domestic game.
But there are stories out there about this stuff, whenever a particularly big example of the rule in effect is noted. You will not get a bigger story than of how an English referee – Anthony Taylor – was told that he would not be eligible to officiate the World Cup Final.
The reason why? The Falklands War, in 1982.
This is not a joke. Because of “lingering bad blood” English refs are banned from officiating at matches involving Argentina and their officials are banned from taking games which involve England.
That’s how seriously FIFA takes this stuff.
A report in The Times, which reported on the bad news for Taylor, said, “Sources with knowledge of FIFA’s appointment system say that ensuring neutrality is deemed as a top priority and means that English referees would not be put on matches involving Argentina — and by the same token referees from Argentina would not be given England games.”
“Neutrality is deemed as a top priority.” By FIFA. And UEFA. And most other European leagues. But in a country where two clubs are supported by the bulk of the populace we pretend that it’s not an issue here. That’s all we’re doing of course; pretending.
We’re pretending, and nobody is convinced by the pretence.
Not even those hacks who spend all their time telling us that Scottish football does not have biased officials and have no interest in finding out otherwise.
They know as well as we do that it’s as certain as death and taxes that we routinely have games refed by the team the whistler supporters … at every other level in the game this is forbidden. Why is it not forbidden here?
So the next time you are arguing this point with someone, and especially one of the hacks, remember Anthony Taylor because he’s our poster boy now, a guy who would have refereed a World Cup Final but for a conflict that happened 41 years ago and was a minor skirmish in the grand sweep of wars this island has been involved in.
Doubtless the likes of Tom English would tell people to get over it already, but that’s the thing; a lot of people can’t get over this stuff and FIFA knows it and that’s why FIFA tries to keep officials from these countries away from each other.
For God’s sake, can we stop with the nonsense that this isn’t a legitimate line of debate?
Can we please stop kidding ourselves on that the way we do things here is either normal or even healthy? Even if the game here is not bent we’ve created the perfect conditions for it and these people have to recognise that if they recognise nothing else.
Can you imagine it, Suddenly St Mirren, Clyde, Hamilton etc etc would have so many supporters from the MIB it would be unbelievable
They’re all shit scared that if this were enforced they would have to import refs from other countries.
Here’s the thing John. In England, any ref lying about his allegiances, faces serious sanctions…if caught.
Hail Hail.
God forbid the celtic board pushed for these changes.
Don’t want to upset the blue pound.
James you’re assuming that refs would tell the truth about who they support. If you look deeper into the English set up there’s no real scrutiny of what their refs have said, it’s taken on face value. So what’s to stop Beaton saying he’s a Motherwell or Albion Rovers fan he lives in Bellshill so it’s a catchment area for both clubs admittedly more likely to be Motherwell but you get my point. Declaring your allegiance can be rigged and be just as corrupt as all Celtic supporters know the Scottish game is. The only way we’re going to get a legitimate product is to gut the sixth floor at Hampden as the SFA, SPFL and the Referees Association are as corrupt as they come and if the clubs won’t do it the supporters have to push for it, it’s the only avenue left to affect real change.
Silly question…Can’t Sevco v Celtic be reffed by a ref from Aberdeen?
If the SFA and media continue to deny Scottish football has a problem using the rules referees control to maintain the status quo and continue to perform as they have since VAR introduced they bring the reputation of Scottish football into such disrepute no quality players or managers will want to ply their trade in Scotland.
Ah but you see Auldheid that would mean their beloved Scumbag FC would have a better chance of winning the lezgue! All the best knuckle-scrapers in the land will flock to their midden for the chance to break legs for Rrrrrrangurrs….
Is there going to be a lot of Hamilton, Stirling Albion, Airdrie, etc,Favourite teams for Refereeing officials, or is it embarrassing to be a fan of the Ibrox institution,for all the various histories of Bigotry,sectarianism, religious bias,etc etc .
Email address for FIFA , I just emailed them inc. a link from PMGB site. About the very same subject matter…
No excuses, let’s bombard them…
media@fifa.org
‘Fifa are anti british’ a soon to be exclusive by mark pirie.. with the clubs new found scouting range (particularly asia) the interest, tv rights and mostly money available will eventually tip the scale for change, it’ll just take a strong celtic boardroom to make the eejits at the sfa realise that the mvp wasn’t born in 2012
Most of us mere paying customers are used to having to address Benchmarking, Best Practice, Continuous Improvement on a regular basis in our jobs.
Yet, The Scottish Referees’ Association seems to operate within a black hole.
Why do they not want to improve the professional service they provide to the game?
Would Scottish referees like to have the opportunity to officiate at a WC or Euros?
But, the bottom line is that Category 1 refrerees are handsomely paid.
However, it seems that the majority [?] of Scottish supporters think the match officials are simply not good enough.
So, what will the SFA do…?
Maybe that’s why we got the unqualified, inexperienced Maxwell as SFA CEO?
The qualified, highly experienced SFA President, Petrie, is not going to rock the boat.
And recent noises aside: will our Club Board rock the boat?
…well, it shamefully didn’t in 2012 – or since.
And Lawwell is back. 🙁
The game up here is like watching the wrestling from the 70s all dummy fighting the difference here is this is dummy football.
One of the fans should call up radio snyde one night tell the producer guy taking your call you want to talk abou transfers,then change your mind when you get put on air to talk about refs and point out how the English ref was not allowed to officiate the world cup final with Argentina being in it.
Then listen to how they stutter trying to cut you off because that was not the topic you phoned to speak about when you spoke with the producer.
I can just imagine Gordon Duncan the presenter (kids on he is a Motherwell fan aka sevco)choking with auld Spew Heevins trying to deflect the callers point away.
It’s a wonder the bookies ain’t screaming about fixed results there’s Walsh getting another sevco game in the semi final thats about 14 (not true) of their 20 games he’s had this season wonder why
The SFA are also against foreign referees coming to Scotland but have no problem sending our officials to referee league matches abroad.
They sent a team of officials to Greece to take charge of a game there. Bobby Madden was one of them and on return one of the officials tested positive for COVID and the bold Madden still decided he was alright to referee a league game.
Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
You are aware that Scottish refs have often been in charge of the Cairo derby in Egypt?. As the Egyptian FA haven’t the faith in their own refs for this very reason.
The game in Scotland is certainly not dummy fighting with prearranged outcomes. Teams are genuinely trying to play football, not always to win, sometimes just not to lose. However, it is quite clear to most observers of the Scottish game that referees favour any team playing out of Ibrox. There is absolutely no question that they display bias conscious or unconscious in favour of the team in blue. Nobody really cares about the career path of Scottish referees internationally as long as they continue to adhere to the programme at home. Scottish football operates in a bubble. Religious prejudice is manifest in the Scottish game. It is the elephant in the room and the SFA, SPFL, and SRA members/officials have not and do not have have the courage and vision to develop the game in Scotland.They are all enslaved by the need for success of their Club at ANY cost to the rest of Scottish football. We can only keep pressure on the Celtic board
It,s not the game that,s bent ,it,s the very biast so called OFFICIALS, some like collom ,Walsh etc should be reffing Sunday league football they shame the Scottish professional game with Thier AMATEUR performances,time for outsiders to come in and do the job as it should be done FSIRI and WITHOUT bias
Agree wi that. Findin out where an officials allegiances lie is one thing. Tho as well as that, bringin in officials outside of Scotland would be a big move forward imo. If Scottish officials don’t like it, tough. It’s their highly questionable and incompetent performances that have caused it.
As I have said before it is Celtic FC that has got to force this issue. We should refuse to allow Beaton to officiate in any of our games and when the shit hits the fan, take the SFA to court to prove our point and it would be a slam dunk in our favour. make this a test case and force proper changes thereafter.
We’re kidding ourselves if we think referees declaring allegiances will make any difference. They’ll just do what journalists used to and pretend to support someone else.
I phoned the Daily Record about 3 year’s ago after another article accusing the Celtic fans of being paranoid about corrupt refs and a corrupt system and I pointed out this is the way it’s handled in every major league with FIFA and UEFA only for the Record rag to claim this was a myth. He then hung up on me so I called back and he refused to speak with me so I downloaded a report from FIFA and sent it. The lying rag never replied. When I called again they claimed it hadn’t been sent. I then proceeded to send the report 5 times a day for a month. They still Insist Ì never sent the report.