All Around Celtic, The Ibrox Penalty Scam Is Hurting Clubs And We’re Next.

If you’ve followed the news from around the game today you already know that there was another penalty incident at Motherwell where the Ibrox club got away with one. Actually, I thought they got away with two. But the Motherwell manager was particularly incensed about the second, where Dessers pulls back a player who is almost through on the keeper.

In any other country that’s a penalty. Bottom line. It is not even up for debate. Not a single person in the commentariat that I’m aware of does not agree that it’s a shocker. Not only did the ref not give it but VAR didn’t bother to call him over for another look.

Of course, they didn’t. Ibrox is heading for two full seasons without conceding a spot kick in the league and there has been all sorts said on that subject but nothing has actually been done about it. What do we want done? We want officials held to account and for the media to ask questions. They don’t. They won’t. They are gutless and the clubs are toothless. All it would take is for one chairman to actually talk about this and call it out for what it is; highly suspect.

There is one run that I know of like it, and Alan Morrison brought this up in the Graham Spiers podcast earlier in the month; that of Barcelona who went on a run that has lasted even longer than the Ibrox club is on now. Theirs lasted 79 games, and they complained bitterly about the decision being “highly contentious” when they finally conceded one.

You know what’s notable about that run? It covers the period which is currently under investigation for their alleged bribing of officials. So that stat doesn’t represent a “statistical anomaly”, it represents a crime against football.

What I found honestly hard to credit about Alan Morrison’s stats was how Matt Lindsay reacted to them. He made up his mind before the debate even started and nothing Alan said was going to change it one bit. He, like so many others, starts out from the basis that the SFA and our officials are honest men. But refs have lied to Celtic. SFA officials have withheld the registration of Celtic players. Ibrox minded men at Hampden covered for a decade of EBT use.

And a lot of clubs in this league have suffered in the course of this run. Clubs in this league are officiated differently against the Ibrox club and that’s borne out in the numbers. A “pattern of assistance” Morrison calls it, rightly in my view, and nobody even wants to question it. Nobody wants an inquiry into whether or not this is bent.

No club in Europe is on a run like this. Virtually every club in Europe has seen the number of penalties given against them rise since VAR … Ibrox’s has flatlined on zero, it hasn’t moved a millimetre, maybe because there’s nothing lower than zero.

Motherwell suffered today. Ross County are next, at Ibrox in midweek. Then its our turn and if anyone thinks we’re getting a penalty they are quite mad. We’re more likely to see one given against us on the flimsiest pretext and as we’re the club with the biggest megaphone you’d have thought we’d have used it before this oh-so critical game arrives.

Instead, Celtic is as silent as everyone else as the Great Penalty Scandal continues to unfold. Ever getting the feeling we’re going to suffer for it?