Ibrox And Its Officials Are Getting Away With Murder Because Only Celtic Fans Care.

How much do other clubs care about the dire officiating in Scotland? Easy answer; in the main they don’t. If they did they would do something about it. How much do their fans care? Well they might like a wee moan about how they “never get anything in Glasgow” or talk about how the “Glasgow clubs” hold some sway over refs … but actually act?

They would rather be cheated than have to do something about it.

Today it was the turn of Kilmarnock. In midweek it will be Hibs on the wrong end of every decision going. Then it’ll be Raith Rovers and then Motherwell. The fans of these clubs know this. They go into the games expecting it, but because they also expect to get beat, and their managers do as well, they figure what does it matter?

If a bad refereeing call gives them a hard luck story, I’m half convinced some of them would prefer that to a point.

At the bottom of it all is a lack of ambition to be more than they are. Is it a coincidence that those managers who have made waves and won things at these clubs were willing to take on the establishment? That they had no fear of the Glasgow nexus?

It’s been obvious for a long time that part of the issue here is simply loser thinking and clubs being willing to accept what they get because they don’t expect anything anyway. I have zero faith in any club deciding to take any of these matters the full way except when it comes to cup competitions or something of that ilk. Then you hear them scream.

Kilmarnock are not screaming tonight. McInnes has accepted the penalty given against them although it’s been labelled “controversial” which tells me enough, and but is lamenting the one that they didn’t get. Lamenting it, just not actually doing anything about it like saying that the standard of officiating in this country is now beyond acceptability.

Clubs rant and rave for a day – unless the decision favours us, and by God you hear them for a week or more – but none of them ever feels the motivation to do anything more about it. We all know, not one of us is unaware, that refereeing in this country is a joke. Most people are clear that Ibrox and its official friends are cheating clubs.

But hey, it’s only three games of the season, or four if you’re challenging for Europe in the top six, and they don’t expect to win those games anyway. So what does it matter if you get screwed? At least you have something to blame the defeat on rather than just admit that you come to those games with a loser mentality and see it as a free pass.

In the meantime, only Celtic fans care. And you know why? Because deep down every other club’s fans see us as the only people with anything real at stake.

And so this game continues to rot from the top down. It was ever thus.