BBC Journalist Opens Up The Big Debate At Last In An Article Accusing Refs Of Bias.

Richard Gordon of the BBC has written an article for The Press & Journal which some are going to term an extraordinary piece.

Graham Spiers is already branding it as such, and wondering, if I’m understanding him right, if Gordon’s integrity is compromised by the central claim; that our officials have a clear bias in favour of Ibrox.

Only in Scotland could such a claim be branded controversial.

Everywhere else, they would see it as nothing but common sense.

Gordon does not speculate for the sake of it. He raises the issue we’ve all been talking about for ages; the incredible number of games which the Ibrox club has gone without conceding a spot-kick in the SPFL.

That run is now at 68 games. Sixty-eight.

They are eight games shy of two full campaigns.

Think about that, and then ask yourself why it is considered controversial to examine that run and conclude that it is more than just a weird historical quirk. In the last four seasons, they have conceded less penalty kicks than Phillipe Clement has been awarded in this competition since he became boss over there. And Gordon doesn’t even stop there in his analysis.

He has done what nobody else has done in that time.

He has tried to view this through the prism of Celtic and the Ibrox club being the best two sides in the country, the two most attacking teams, and factored in how seldom teams have a go at them these days. And in spite of us scoring more goals and being the best attacking team in the country we’ve been awarded less spot kicks than Ibrox … but it’s close, at 26-23 over the period examined.

It’s the closeness of that stat which makes the next number all the more extraordinary; we have had ten penalty kicks awarded against us to their three.

That’s where the stat about how it’s 68 games without one jumps out at you and scream in your face.

Two of those three penalties were awarded in games against Ross County and Dundee in consecutive months in 2021.

After Aberdeen’s Lewis Ferguson scored against them from the spot in January 2022 they raised 99 kinds of Hell about the decision, the ref didn’t get one of their games for ages and we were off to the races on this particular run. It’s as if officials were given a warning about what happens if decisions go against them and you know what? If so, that lesson was certainly learned.

“They have now played a staggering 68 matches without conceding one in the Premiership,” Gordon writes. “In that time, it would appear not a single (Ibrox) player has committed a foul in their own 18-yard-box. Not once has a referee deemed a challenge illegal; not once, since its introduction in October 2022, has a VAR official highlighted anything of note while the Ibrox side has been defending its area. It would hardly be a stretch to suggest there is bias there. I am not suggesting it is intentional bias, that the referees are deliberately ignoring incidents, but for whatever reason, it clearly exists. How else, unless (their) defenders are somehow infinitely more disciplined than all their opponents, can that remarkable statistic be explained?”

That is good journalism. That is the job.

I realise that it might be difficult for some in the profession, who have spent years not doing it, to recognise it when they see it, but that’s what this is.

If you are covering sport in Scotland and you are not asking this question, you’re in the wrong gig.

It’s screamingly obvious that something doesn’t add up here; read again that section on VAR.

We’ve had VAR for more than a year. You tell me how it’s possible that their officials have not spotted even one incident which merits awarding a penalty against that club in the league since its introduction. We all know there are plenty they could have highlighted.

Barry Robson said it best “It’s not a good look, is it?” and Gordon opened his piece with that quote.

He realises that this isn’t normal, that something about it stinks and thank God for someone in his role who has the guts just to say what many others have to be thinking.

He can’t be alone. In fact, he’s not alone. Andrew Smith of The Scotsman was highlighting this trend when they were only 40 games in, and he must be aghast to see it reach this place.

But these are lone voices in the wilderness, and it is high time they weren’t.

The debate is wide open now.

Spiers is a good guy, I think, one of the people in our media who I firmly believe those who crave real reform could count on as an ally. He has a podcast where he is not afraid to discuss and debate controversial issues, so let’s have this one.

Hell, I’ll go on it and put my money where my mouth is, as it were.

I know the general perception of the bloggers is that we are conspiracy theorists and lunatics; I believe that over the last few years this blog and others have made a number of cogent points and raised legitimate concerns about officiating in Scotland, but we’re pissing in the wind without those in the mainstream getting into it, and so many of them point blank refuse to.

Almost all of them in fact.

As I said at the start, only in Scotland would it be considered extraordinary for a mainstream journalist to want to discuss officiating in this manner, and to draw attention to a major issue within the sport.

But the mainstream media has spent so long pretending not that this stuff isn’t happening but actually that it could not be happening that you actually do a double-take when one of them brings in up.

That has got to change.

There are some in the press who are not afraid to discuss the big issues. Gordon and Smith have led from the front. It’s up to the rest of them now to decide if they’re going to follow.

You can be part of the solution … or part of the problem. Pretending there isn’t one … well, as far as I’m concerned that’s a choice like any other, and by that choice they’ll be judged.