It is not often that an officiating decision makes me laugh out loud, except when it is one so unbelievable, for the club across the city, that it really doesn’t leave you any choice except to scream.
But last night I did laugh at a penalty decision and it was at Ibrox of all places.
I laughed in part in surprise, because it went against them.
And I laughed because it wasn’t as big a surprise as it might have been. It would certainly have come as a greater shock had it been in a Scottish game. That’s why I laughed too at the disbelieving look on the faces of their players, who are simply not used to be refereed according to the same rules and regulations as everybody else.
That was a landmark moment last night, the latest in a list of penalties which have been awarded against them in Europe, and all the while their run of not conceding any in league business continues and looks set to stretch far into the future. How can it be that they get spot kicks given against them in Europe regularly, and in Scotland they just don’t?
Another anomaly? Good God, there are a lot of anomalies surrounding that club, aren’t there?
That we had to endure the pathetic spectacle of John Beaton, just last week, calling it just that, and trying to stop us from viewing this all in context, only adds to the unreality of it.
Quite how they have the balls to attempt that defence now I do not know.
I find it especially rich that the penalty was given for a handball. No wonder their players were stunned. Their central defender is only footballer in Scotland who must have been waiting for a call from the national netball team. I swear to God, somewhere in some SFA office there has to be a bona-fide Conor Goldson version of the rulebook.
But not in Europe. His team doesn’t get away with it there, they are punished just like everyone else. And that was funny because of Beaton’s casual dismissal of this as an issue, it’s funny because this shows how abnormal their run in Scotland is, and it’s funny because their players were obviously so used to not conceding them that they forgot where they were playing.
And it’s funny because it does, of course, change the argument for us and the way in which it is being had.
Their European record of conceding penalties hasn’t had enough attention, and it should be if we’re really going to move this discussion towards one about the context … that’s important, and it needs to be highlighted by every single of us with a voice.
I agree with everything you say but as long as our club does and says nothing about it, PUBLICLY, the “anomaly” will continue.
The fluke goal from the sevco striker last night and the penalty against sevco he was responsible for apparently shocked the player.
He made a statement that a meeting took place with the players the klub and the refs before the season started that these decisions are allowed I kid you not the sevco player said this,enough said so let’s leave it at that.
You have better chance of a rocking horse having a dump or seeing Lord Lucan, than seeing a penalty from a Scottish ref at the BIGOT DOME this season awarding a penalty there.
The point is that penalties are not awarded for hand ball incidents in the box.
They are… Just not against the home team. The penalty vs Servette was a weird one to challenge, he practically slapped the ball out of the way of the attacker’s head. Having reviewed the highlights on YouTube I’m also pretty surprised they didn’t get more yellow cards, some really “mistimed” tackles.
On the flip side, we need to be really smart against them. They appear to be fully invested in the dark arts. Expect late challenges on us and dropping at the least opportunity. Our refs will fall for it. Maybe not for penalties, but I long said that it’s not necessarily the penalties and goal decisions that change a game, the stop start free kick stuff can disrupt flow and they’ll doubtless go for as many free kicks around the box as they can (VAR doesn’t look at free kicks unless potential red cards so they can con the ref easily).
They are a terrible team, but a terrible team that has enough “luck” in decisions domestically that we need to be aware.
Bet the Klan were running off to check which school the referee went to.
As long as the Lanarkshire Referee Ludge continue to rule the roost with the SFA’s blessing ( oops, silly word) then nothing will change.
Their arrogance is Legendary. No criticism allowed or the dummy gets spat oot.
Their intervention on Sevco’s behalf saved them a minimum of 20 points last season.
It will never change unless and until they are disbanded as well as the SFA.
Both Organisations are institutionally Racist, Bigoted and Corrupt.
They remain unchecked at the sufferance of the other Clubs throughout the leagues.
There are very few, if any, of the other Clubs that are not complicit with this situation.
This is Protestant Scotland after all.
Any that do have reservations about this scenario are reluctant to raise their heads above the parapet and call it out.
The Klan’s response to ‘ranjurs haters’ is well documented.
And of course good old BBC SCOTLAND said not a cheap at the time nor when play raged on but oh my word when play was stopped and they were caught by an honest VAR… Every permissible angle was magically wheeled out…
And what about McCann – Openly saying on air that Butland should have gone down like a man who’d been shot to get the penalty scorer of Servette sent off –
There are many good people to have come out of Inverclyde and very few are Rats…
But Neil McCann is a Rat of the highest order riddled with Weil’s disease !
All I can say is.
We know they are lying, they know that we know they are lying. Enuf said!
God bless you all today. Have a great day everyone!
I’m not a conspiracy theorist normally and I’ve put baffling Scottish referring down to incompetence rather than Ingrained club bias but the Rangers penalty against anomaly is stark. Also the fact that Rangers get awarded so many pens in Scotland unlike Celtic who hardly get granted any at all?
As old Columbo used to repeatedly observe .. ‘sumfin bothers me here, ma’am .. ‘ ?
I did some digging on the interweb. Sevco’s penalty statistics since they were founded are astonishing.
According to Transmarket.com of the 7 years they’ve been in the premiership, 5 of those they have conceded the least amount of penalties of all the teams and once they were 2nd bottom. In two full seasons they conceded no penalties at all. The anomaly was the once they were mid table.
2016/17 2 finished bottom
2017/18 5 mid table
2018/19 2 finished bottom
2019/20 2 finished bottom
2020/21 0 finished bottom
2021/22 3 2nd bottom
2022/23 0 finished bottom
No doubt that the Rangers will have a secret dossier on all UEFA referees and assistants after the unbelievable penalty decision against them the other night ! Not to worry though ,normal service shall be resumed at Ibrox against Livingston ….happy days !
Well they do have wee Hugh in the upper echelons of FIFA/UEFA who can access all of the Referee’s records so what’s not to like.
Anyone know what has happened to Johnny Green? Haven’t seen any of his posts for a while.