SFA Credibility Comes Down To How They Back (Or Don’t Back) Willie Collum Today.

Today, or so we were told, the refs will meet with the Hampden top brass to discuss the issues coming out of the match with the Ibrox club. By the close of business they should be making a statement to update the rest of us on what is going on.

Knowing the SFA’s penchant for secrecy they might not bother.

But that would only risk making a bad situation worse. And this is, whether the noise has died down or not, a very bad situation indeed. This is an issue of credibility, and of sporting integrity.

I find it amazing that we are here talking about sporting integrity in this context. But it’s a fact nonetheless.

If their club is allowed to get away with intimidating an official in this manner then we’re on a descent towards anarchy. And it’s not just that they did it, but the way in which they did it, the sneaky, underhanded and actually quite dangerous method that they chose, which presents the real risks, not only to Collum but to the game.

Collum will already feel under pressure not to award decisions against them. What if they pick some other referee next week to do this to? How long before in addition to those who don’t want to give decisions against them, we end up with a cadre of them who don’t feel as if they can? It is not hard to see how sporting integrity is impacted by that.

The SFA and the SPFL were too slow at tackling Ibrox’s behaviour before and that was seen as weak inside the club which now believes, and perhaps rightly, that it can act however it pleases without consequences.

They have to be dissuaded of that notion, and quickly.

The SPFL and the SFA have already made a major mistake in not sanctioning Ibrox for this already. Even if the refs stamp their feet and demand it, it will seem too little too late.

The game was weeks ago now.

The Ibrox statements were out in the first few days after it. This could and should have been dealt with immediately, and it’s not like the “governing bodies” would have had to work too hard finding things to charge Ibrox with. The disrepute charge virtually writes itself, there’s no need for anyone to gild the lily here.

It is equally obvious that their conduct runs counter to the best interests of the sport.

It’s a farce that it’s taken this long and if it only happens now because refs demand to know why it hasn’t happened yet that will linger in a lot of people’s memories for a long time to come.

But if that meeting goes by today and nothing happens, the effects will be larger and the anger deeper and the problems far more extreme … and we won’t have “governing bodies” anymore, just a group of people who “administer” the rulebook without enforcing it.