Across the world, one thing terrorises the dictator, the cheat, the liar, the corrupt and the violent like nothing else; the widespread use of video. Citizens with their own hand-held little cameras, capturing everything.
From the invention of the camcorder, this stuff has been making shockwaves all across the world. From the cops who beat Rodney King to the Luis Rubiales kiss … if it’s on camera you are essentially bang to rights.
Video footage has brought down cabinet ministers; look at Matt Hancock, who presided over a shambolic COVID response and wasn’t fired for that. It was CCTV footage of him having it off with one of his staff, violating lockdown regulations in the process which did for him.
It has annihilated careers. Mason Greenwood is trying to put his back together, and unfortunately may even succeed, after his girlfriend posted a video so shocking I could only read the transcript of it. One of the best examples of it was the notorious interview a broadcaster did with the jewellery store magnate Gerald Ratner, who torpedoed his business by telling the presenter that all he sold was cheap tat and that his customers were mugs.
It has sent people to prison.
Watch the outstanding documentary The Jinx, about Robert Durst, a man who was suspected of three murders, one of which he had gone on trial for. Watch the end of the episode where he talks to himself when he thinks the camera is switched off, as he rehearses his answers, both those he gave during his sensational acquittal for murder and during the investigation into the disappearance of his wife, where he repeats aloud, “I did not knowingly, willingly, purposefully lie,” in such a way that you know that’s what he did do. “I didn’t tell the whole truth. Nobody tells the whole truth,” he says, even after his lawyer spots the green light and tells him that the entire exchange is being recorded.
That six-part documentary series single-handedly let to his being charged, and convicted, of one of the two murders with which he was only a suspect. That’s the power of film.
That’s why Durst’s lawyers begged him not to do an interview on tape or even to take part in the documentary at all.
There are things that have been captured on film which are unbelievable to behold. Unbelievable.
Some are incredible moments of accomplishment; others are almost incomprehensibly horrible. One of the terrors of the current age is the growing ability to make “deep fake” video; if you are used to trusting what you see on film there’s no telling what some people are going to be made to believe with the use of that technology.
What we saw last night at Ibrox was not some deep fake, unless you’re referring to the personnel and not to the tech. It happened and we all saw it happen. There is not the slightest doubt about what unfolded in front of our eyes.
I have not heard a single person dispute it. Even the Usual Suspects in the media and, every former ref, is rushing to tell us what was evident to every person watching; that Sima committed a foul on a Livingston player before his goal.
It is the textbook “bang to rights” moment. And yet there are at least four people – the ref, the linesman and the two guys in the VAR booth – who disagreed with what everyone else seems to know.
If even one of them had dissented that’s probably not a goal.
So how exactly do four people, and crucially the only four people able to influence the event, take an entirely different view from those who watched it live or have seen it since?
They must be the amongst the only people in Scotland who see it differently, and because two of them had the benefit of the instant replay and the chance to watch it multiple times and from different angles, what are we supposed to conclude other than that they made a conscious choice to give that goal regardless of the regulations?
Is it a coincidence that this came just weeks after the Ibrox club complained about a goal which was chopped off in front of the home crowd against Celtic?
We all know that’s not a coincidence. We all know that’s why the goal last night was allowed to stand. To expect us to believe anything else treats us like absolute fools. We know what we saw with our own eyes. We recognise it for exactly what it was. And the very people whose job was simply to uphold the rules took a different view than everyone else.
That they got it badly, badly wrong is not in the least doubt. So, the only question that remains is how exactly did that happen?
Was it simply a wrong call? From all of them?
That would be a stretch even if two of them weren’t able to watch it again to get it right. So, if we accept that it wasn’t simply a momentary wrong judgement then what exactly was it?
When does our media grow some balls and start to challenge this?
It’s like the “statistical anomaly” with the Ibrox club not conceding a penalty in a league game for more than 50 games now. A whole season and a half has elapsed since the last one … and there was such an outcry of bitterness and anger from their club over that decision too.
I read Martindale’s response last night and found it astonishingly weak. His club chairman was no more forceful on Twitter, bemoaning that his club has to “suffer in silence.”
Well, he’s not the only one who feels that. Celtic does it too, and way too often.
But why are we suffering in silence? Why are we suffering at all for God’s sake?
When cabinet careers have been ended and people sent to trial for what’s been caught on camera, are we really supposed to live in an environment where people aren’t allowed to react to what is either staggering incompetence or gross cheating when it’s being broadcast right into our living rooms?
Because that decision either boils down to one or the other of those things, and yet I got an email alert this morning telling me that Collum will referee our game at the weekend.
He should be refereeing in the Lowland League on the basis of that decision last night, and the other officials involved in upholding it should be there with him.
If a player commits a foul the SFA sanctions him with a yellow.
If it’s bad enough he’s sanctioned with a red.
Free kicks and penalties are awarded in addition to those sanctions.
Some of those decisions cost people their jobs.
What does it cost a referee who gets one of them wrong?
In Scotland, nothing. That does two things; it allows standards to drop and it allows for cheating to occur. One or the other led to that call last night, and even if you don’t think we’re entitled to know which it is, we’re certainly entitled to think that the officials responsible will have to face some consequences for it.
The clubs go round and round on this all the time, and some of them even repeat this garbage about “that’s what you expect when you go to Glasgow. “
Even if that were true, to simply take it, like a guy visiting a vice den for his weekly whipping, makes you a mug and tells your fans that you want an easy life as opposed to fighting for equal treatment on the club’s behalf, and then you’re in the wrong game.
People talk about this stuff as thought the SFA were some metaphysical force which was essentially unchallengeable; the SFA is the clubs, made up from within the clubs themselves, nominated to run the game at the behest of the clubs and if the clubs want to change the way it works there then they only have to commit to that cause.
Otherwise, they deserve everything they get.
Suffering in silence is for wimps and for fools, it’s for people who are content to bend over. It’s for those who can’t muster the will to fight, and so they have to take whatever’s coming to them.
It does not matter what you believe; you can believe that our officials are potentially corrupt or you can view it as rank incompetence, but either way, anybody who doesn’t want to be part of the solution is part of the problem because that’s why we’re stuck on this roundabout. That’s why we’re stuck with this situation and why it never ever changes.
Last night it wasn’t Sima who was caught, on camera, bang-to-rights, it was Collum and his fellow SFA brethren.
That’s the real story here.
Everyone saw what happened and what happened isn’t just the foul it’s that they ignored the foul, it’s that they allowed it, even with the technology to hand which should have ruled out the goal.
Especially with that technology to hand.
And that’s the larger problem here.
Last night, the cameras revealed either an incomprehensible failure to understand the rules these guys are all meant to know by heart or they uncovered corruption, and both are of equal concern.
And nothing is going to be done about it?
That’s a scandal folks, an actual scandal.
It continues because the MUG PUNTERS allow it by showing up every week home and away watching a rigged game. You would be as well going to a wrestling match at least you know it’s all rigged and set up.
No point in BITCHING about these decisions then showing up and filling out a stadium,the people in charge then see the MUGS buying into a rigged game so there is nothing needing changed.
A nickel&dime league with nickel&dime officials you get what you pay for.
Spot on once again Scud,mugs of all clubs buying into this corruption every week,our clubs fans are probably the biggest mugs in all this.
And all we have are the blogs to moan and whine about it while Peter Lawwell and his cohorts keep quiet so they can keep drawing their salaries that are paid for by the Celtic support who are themselves being cheated BY OUR OWN BOARD.
Why ! Why are clubs , players ,fans and everything and everyone associated with the other top flight clubs plying their trade in wee Scawlin ,more than happy to sit back ,week on week and accept wholeheartedly the evident favouritism by referees , VAR and other officialdom towards a certain clumpany over all the rest ? Saying zilch ! There are club ‘s who depending on certain results could go out of business if corruption is endemic ! There are players with young families , mortgages etc whose livelihoods depend on true righteousness …every single game without fail .Yet there is the sound of silence ! WHY ? It’s now toxic . It’s overwhelming . It’s way past embarrassing . It needs to be cut off at the neck ….or it will only grow back again !
You rightly point out that the evidence is there on camera for all to see the truth yet after the 2016 cup final the daily radar had the sheer brass neck to print a bare faced lie that every ibrox player was attacked kicked and spat on. That really just showed how much an influence the new club have over them and the rest of the gutless sports media.
The worst ever thing to happen is The SFA employing ‘Catholic’ referees like Collum and Clancy if indeed that is their religion…
They will never and must be seen to never – Give ‘their own’ any decision no matter how mi-nite –
Equally the will go out of their way to be ‘neutral’ to Sevco and we all seen the result of that last night…
A very clever move by The SFA to give Collum The Celtic game on Saturday, he will not want to be seen to be weak and will give Celtic nothing even though we are due it in a stonewall manner…
What a stinking football country Scotland is indeed – Thank Fuck I only go to Highland League games these days, even Brora Rangers are refereed without favour unlike Sevco the Barsteward child of The deceased Rangers (c.2012) !
Jesus Christ man
The thing is, it’s the exact same as the situation with Motherwell, but. Motherwell did not get to play on and score. Scottish football is corrupt to the core and in favour of the new club out of Ibrox.
There was a definite foul against the Livingstone player, just like the one against the Motherwell player. However, the common factor here is the Tribute act from Ibrox. The exact same situation resulted in a foul in one case, but resulted in a goal in the other case. Both results favoured the Tribute act.
It is time we arranged for legal action. There is plenty of evidence on videos captured. Crowd funding would make sure there was plaenty to hire the best lawyers available. Both the clubs and the fans could unite and put an end to this stuff.
We need to stop being wimps and take the SFA and corrupt officials to court. It has been done officially in the past with regard to Farry. It has to be done again. To see corruption and ignore it is equally as evil as corruption itself.
What a pathetic little country we live in! The English FA actually do carry out their duties fairly and properly. The SFA favours the one rotten club in every contentious decision.
I say this sadly, I’ve never been one for boycotts of Celtic games that would harm the club financially, but I’m afraid VAR has really brought home to us how bad the cheating is. Unless our club makes some kind of public statement and takes up dialogue with its own supporters, around the poor quality and potential cheating by the referees employed by the SFA, who as James points out is the body that is supposed to represent every club in Scotland, Then a boycott of an SFA organised Scottish cup game should be considered.
This would highlight that we as a support are not willing to be treated as fools any longer.
If this doesn’t result in a round table discussion with all SPFL clubs and the SFA hierarchy involved then I would extend the boycott by Celtic supporters to all games played under SFA organisation including Scottish Internationals.
Surely supporters of other clubs if presented with the evidence can see that the statistics around the penalties awarded too and penalties conceded by the Ibrox club over the past two seasons point to some level of cheating.
The Celtic Board as the custodians of Celtic PLC should be publicly questioning the impartiality and ability of the refereeing dept of the SFA and how it impacts on their business.
A fish rots from the head.
The SFA has a Head of Referee Operations, Crawford Allan. Instead of complaining about Collum, Beaton etc., etc. the fans should be targeting him. Mr. Allan is the man in charge of setting & maintaining standards. He’s been in post since 2020. It seems that he’s able to meet his SFA KPIs annually, even though the dugs in the street know he’s failing at his job.
Crawford Allan has a superior: Iain Maxwell, the CEO of the dysfunctional SFA. He’s been in post since 2018 & appears to accept that both Mr. Allan & his referee cohort are fulfilling their remit, despite SFA match officials being (almost) sidelined from major UEFA & FIFA competitions. He continues to employ Allan, & by his inaction, defend him & his misfiring referees.
Messrs. Maxwell & Allan are the problems here. No change is possible without removing them from their posts. Removing them is in the hands of the member clubs.
Spot on.
Why inflict him and the rest on any league?
I see cheatin Beaton has an FIFA licence…… say no more.
I would gladly contribute to this idea Pan to be rid of these utterly corrupt match officials and the SFA,SPFL and along with these cheating bastards our own board as well.
Your ranting on about this James and rightly so but the problem is were surrounded by these people. All the video’s, TV coverage and anything else you want to mention won’t make any difference. The ref’s, linesman VAR panel, their all members of the funny handshake. And any that’s not dare not make a decision that goes against them because they would be refereeing in the lower tiers, their scared for their jobs. Its Glasgow’s equivelent of the mafia its so obvious. But it just shows how far in front we are because all the corruption they endevour to aid them still won’t change the outcome but its absolutely shocking.
lol about Ratner, James, he said something like an M&S sandwich would last longer than his chains of thread. Anyway back to the MIB,s, I see it like this, our referees are so determined to get the Mooch a trophy, they don’t care, I mean they literally don’t care who see,s it, they don’t care who writes about it, they don’t care who complaines about it , because they are above the footballing laws in this wee protestant Country of ours and unless more clubs make a stance and just say, NO MORE, we will never be free of this corruption and that’s what it is.
The responsibility for refereeing appointments is with the SFA. Where does the buck stop ? Does it stop ? This is a top-down corruption and it always was.
The 5 way agreement is the reason that’s why.
Let it see the ligh5 of day ,expose them all for once and all to be done with it .
That’s where you want the lawyers and your money to go.
Scotland is a country that avoids accountability for it’s institutions. This deliberate, the reasoning is simple, as we all know, the maintenance of an overt sectarian and bigoted unionist power base and the hatred of those that disagree.
It’s simply not a matter of concern to them hence it’s openly displayed, paraded and revered. No challenge or attempt to change that has ever even been entered into by the authorities. This government that so many of us voted for has let Scottish society down badly in this regard, fearing what…a civil war…maybe. Thus they must be voted out for failing us