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Celtic’s Rivals Cling To The Only Successful Tactic They Have. Blame Refs For Being Losers.

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During this season we’ve seen some truly abysmal refereeing performances and some even more shocking managerial setups at our ground. The joke of it is that if you believe the Hibs manager we saw the first of those yesterday.

The thing is, his solution – his proposal – for how we fix refereeing in Scotland is both ridiculous and sublime in equal measure.

I am loathe to give this guy a single iota of credit after the disgraceful way that his team handled the game, but there is something to be said about it just the same, just not in the way that this idiot clearly thinks that there is.

His idea is that we have full time, professional referees.

Great idea.

This blog and others have proposed much the same thing several times.

But to make this proposal on the same day as he is doing nothing but bitching about the standard of officiating in Scotland is almost testing the limits of parody.

Lee Johnson’s team offered nothing yesterday but brutality and that saddens me as someone who has watched Hibs for years, who has a great deal of affection for that club and whose reaction to that insult to football yesterday is as grounded in regret as much as anything else.

His club’s tactics were despicable. But you know what?

The tactics in the aftermath of the game were proven winners, although equally cynical.

To criticise officials as the reason their team lost.

There will always be a willing audience for that particular message and if they want make it about that then they are welcome to do so, but the idea of full time refs is one whose idea came long ago and should be debated properly … but that’s not the simplistic conversation some of these people evidently believe that it is.

Who are these people going to be?

We can use the same people running the show right now and what will happen then? Higher standards? Oh please. Only a fool believes that, and we have fools running the SFA already.

The only way to get higher standards is to bring in proper full time officials hired from outside of Scotland. People would still find reasons to complain, but they’d be different reasons than we have now.

And slowly but surely the standards would creep up.

In the meantime, in the absence of a tactic to stop our team on the pitch people will reach for the tried and the tested; to bitch about us off it. That gets headlines. That gets attention.

What a shame it doesn’t get any of these jokers points.

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  • Peterbrady says:

    How pathetic were hibs there only tactic to disrupt us throw another Ball on the park unbelievable as for BBBC bigot British broadcasting last night’s farce I thought I had entered the twilight zone you could not make it up.

    • Tam says:

      As I’ve said before if the punishment for getting things wrong is no punishment WHY TRY GETTING IT RIGHT the people at the top of the house “SFA” are just as corrupt as the referees for letting them get away with cheating. We paid for the VAR TECHNOLOGY and gave it to them “SFA” to help the referees and the “SFA” gave the referees that technology and they are still “cheating” so don’t just outsource referees outsource the SFA as well…then and only then will we have a level playing field…. but we know none of this will happen

  • BJM says:

    Agree 100% james full time official from outwith Scotland is the only answer.
    Why would you want to make the Scottish referees full time ? All you would end up with is full time idiots (cheats) instead of part time idiots ( cheats) as we have now.
    Might be a good time to try and push this as most of the top flight clubs seem to be agreeing the refereeing is horrendous .

  • John says:

    Glad he is mouthing off. Rightly or wrongly we have all asked for other teams to shout up about the standard of our refs.

    Having said that the epl suffered a few strange decisions yesterday.

    Hibs not hard done by yesterday, their tactics were their downfall

    • Johnny Green says:

      A stewards enquiry should be called for as the huns did not get a penalty yesterday, the officials let them down badly. A free kick though on the edge of the box is not a bad alternative.

  • Jimmy R says:

    Our refs are professional. They don’t do it for the love of the game. They do it for the readies. Now that Queens Park have ditched amateurism, there are no amateurs involved in the top levels of the Scottish game.
    Making the refs full time won’t guarantee that they become better. My worry is that they will spend all their time working and coaching in a refereeing bubble. They won’t be mixing with Joe Public in the day job and will become even more insular than present. I can’t think of a better way of ensuring that the laws of the game are interpreted with consistency. My worry is that the whole thing will be run by a bunch of unashamed charlatans to ensure success for you know who.
    At least the current system exposes them to contact outwith the brethern.

    • Johnny Green says:

      They can have their weekly gatherings at the Crown Bar in Bellshill where they will be welcomed with open red hands. Mind you Cesar’s memorial statue is only a stone’s throw from their front door as a reminder that they will always be second best.

  • Johnno says:

    So is this now the approach from anti football managers in Scottish football to blame the cheating officials? Even more ridiculous when teams have been using there cheating ways as a form of tactical advantage, especially against ourselves, so only another pile of horseshite that the Scottish media likes to spread.
    Let’s put into context of how Ange approaches any game weather it be Ross Cunty or Real Madrid, its no different.
    So can any other of the 5 managers chasing 2/3 places available for potential European football next season?
    Would they set there teams up with such an approach and come out with such bullshit in European matches?
    Course they wouldn’t as would be regarded as a total embarrassment for Scottish football and our European partners would be quick enough in telling them so also.
    We are setting the standards of where we need to get to for CL and still not there yet, but well on the way to doing so still.
    The scum still remain no where near CL standards and wouldn’t do much in europa league either currently.
    So what about the rest in the SPFL?
    Shocking really when a valuable income stream is a prize available but such a shit poor approach to Scottish football really means that such muck deserves that potential extra income?
    And let’s not forget how uefa already regards the cheating Scottish officials?
    So currently the only real argument remains as to who remains more responsible for the Scottish game overall being in the shit state where it is currently, anti football managers with there approach to the game or the cheating officials for keeping it dirty still?
    Yet we remain all alone in trying to bring the game to proper levels for european competition and all without credit either.
    Spoilt for choice now with why Scottish football is currently where it is, and only growing with the level of horseshite being spread and its certainly not Rose’s that are growing either

  • Brian Cavanagh says:

    Great column James – and just back at the recent results against Hearts, St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hibs common theme it was the refs fault – yet when you look at shots on goal , or possession for most of these teams the common denominator is possession around 20% -an uncomfortable fact that tells its own story – guess it is too much to expect these managers to look at their style of play?

  • Hunbasher says:

    Couldn’t disagree more.

  • John S says:

    The only time refereeing in Scotland wasn’t bent was when the refs went on strike and the SFA brought in foreigners. A rare weekend. Professional refs ? Yes. Selection process ? Hmmm.

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