The news, yesterday, that we’re rolling out the big guns in the Brendan Rodgers disciplinary case should make this a straightforward enough day with a nice little victory at the end of it. But let’s not forget who it is we are dealing with here.
This is the SFA and with the SFA you just never know. We have brought in a top man to rep him, but Rodgers still may not win.
This is not because we’re not in the right.
Nobody can reasonably hold the position that the SFA is holding to here, that even when an official is obviously incompetent that nobody should say so. That officials in Scotland are beyond reproach.
That stance cannot be sustained by any right-minded person, and it makes the association a laughing stock that they would attempt to argue to the contrary. And yet, that’s what’s in the rulebook.
I mean, let’s deal with the elephant in the room here; a plain text reading of the regulations makes it clear that Rodgers has violated them. That’s how they were ever able to charge him in the first place. Technically speaking, it’s open and shut.
But that’s part of the problem.
A plain text reading of those regulations would have had many a manager in the dock before him and at least one other club sanctioned for going much, much further than he has gone.
That club actually demanded that a ref not get their games in the league on account of bias and not only did they get away with it, to all intents and purposes they have gotten what they wanted. I’m certain Celtic will point that out.
On top of that, when your regulations don’t afford managers any right to question decisions then those regulations are a joke, relegating professional football bosses to a lower status than schoolkids raising their hands for permission to speak. It’s patently absurd, which is why I can say confidently that we’re in the right here, and know most people would agree.
The SFA has to know that this is ridiculous. They have to know that those charges border on farcical and there must be people within its walls who are honestly embarrassed at them ever being levelled in the first place.
And there must be people there too who realise that this has opened up a monumental can of worms, to nobody at Hampden’s benefit.
Peter Grant spoke yesterday about how a verdict which put Rodgers in the stand at Ibrox will provoke fury and spark new conspiracy theories. The very act of charging him looks, to many people, like an attempt to swing the title race.
But a guilty verdict and a ban for that game would stink to high heavens for reasons other than that; it would be a disgrace taken solely on the merits of the so-called case itself.
It would be banana republic stuff, an act of petulance and spite at having this pathetic orthodoxy challenged, a circling of the wagons, an arrogant dismissal of the rights of managers to speak their minds. It would just be obviously scandalous and damaging to the game, the one the SFA is meant to protect, and worthy of the condemnation of everyone who cares about it.
For all that, I think they may well choose that option.
I think they might well just dismiss Celtic’s case out of hand and bunker up and hope to ride out the storm, and if they do that it won’t matter what their motivations are, they will have acted deplorably and without just cause and the irony will be that part of their feeble attempt at defending it will be that Rodgers has somehow brought the game into disrepute and cast doubts on their competence, even as they are doing that themselves and proving that they have none.
The fact the timing of this hearing could mean that BR could be banned for the sevco game is one they should start with, why has it took so long to arrive at this particular date is absurd.
That is EXACTLY what it is all about Jim…
They may or equally may not throw Celtic and therefore Brendan a bone by giving him a suspended sentence for Liebrox…
But they really in doing that are just silencing him from doing or saying anything about their true intended evil in the games between then and the final Glasgow Derby…
Because they are planning something – nothing in this world is surer than that –
Although they might just also do it by giving Sevco outrageous decisions against other clubs knowing that Celtic and Brendan can say nothing about that situation or side of things !
Tell the apron wearers var money is stopped.
We’re funding corruption against ourselves,enoughs enough.
Also demand Brother Beaton, does not referee or on var,another Celtic game.
Start cracking the whip against these crooks.
100% Spot On!!!!!!
I do not share any of your optimism. The proceedings will be short. He said incompetence, the beaks will find guilty, they won’t entertain any chat about other stuff as that’s not relevant to this single case. Rodgers will be in the stand at snake mountain, Beaton et al will continue to get our games, Collum will be kept away from the sevco games. Sevco will pressure referees with impunity and the cycle will continue.
The only hope of any change depends on who replaces Surname Surname after this season. If they look outside Scotland we will see change. If they look within their small world of ex referees we will see more of the same.
Regardless of what happens today, Celtic need to go public with what they’ve been working on.
Absolutely spot on with your last point,Martin.
The time has come for Dermot the Donkey to start braying from his stable roof !
If these crooks want VAR paid for by the clubs then it is the clubs who should be able to determine who sits in judgement.
Also,this ludicrous practice of showing incidents to the match referee in still frame shots must be also be binned and incidents shown in real time and slow motion (if required).
The only time still frames should be used should be for offsides or goal line incidents.
Surname – Surname ! Ha Ha very witty indeed Martin…
And then we also had “The man with NO Surname” !
Given that Celtic have drafted in a top lawyer and, if reports are to be believed, compiled evidence over a number of seasons then this gives the SFA a problem.
Celtic will have compiled evidence to back our case, no doubt showing a history of unfavourable decisions by one or more officials that are contrary to decisions given to other teams by the same officials
If they say Rodgers is guilty and the officials are not incompetent then that would mean they are admitting the officials are cheats.
If they say they are not cheats then they’re admitting they are incompetent.
Either way I see that as a win.
On a related point, if Rodgers is in the stand at Ibrox, will they guarantee his safety?
Couldn’t do it for Sutton or Lennon in their pundit role can they do it for our manager sat in the middle of their hordes especially when/if we score?
Surely even a barrack room lawyer should be able to get a not guilty verdict for Rodgers by quoting Section 10 oi the Freedom of Expression Act, especially when there is proof of incompetence. Being an Irish passport holder means he is still subject to the European
Union rules, so there would be no defence for the governing bodies on that score. Maybe
Celtic should get Irish citizenship (with DDs help from high places) and get themselves back under EE control.
The fact they’ve charged him tells me the decision against Celtic is in absolutely no doubt whatsoever. They can’t backtrack. It would cause even more ructions than it would if they simply stand by their decision. Which is what they will do. 100%.
Rolling out the “big guns” as you call it, will not make any difference other than the perception that Celtic are digging their heels in.
At the end of the day, it will not make one iota of difference.
When it goes ‘ nipples up ‘ for Brendan Rodgers today …appeal the hell out of it ,again and again and again ! That way he will be present on the touchline for the derby game and not in an Ibrox booth as far from the play as possible ? Unless the SFA decide to ‘ super fast track all appeals ,that is ! Let’s hope the Celtic FC brief exposes the total incompetence of our Governing bodies to the rest of the world during Brendan’s defence ? All it takes is one little tap and the entire wall of dominoes comes falling down ….who has the double blank ?
“It’s an injustice, that’s what it is”.
It is one nonetheless which will be enacted. To not do so would be for the SFA to show weakness and a lack of support to their cause and we all know what the real cause is. They think they can covertly hide behind a wall of words but their overt selection of Brendan as a perpetrator and the only selected perpetrator exposes their cause, the real cause that they represent.
Having a professional point out the bias in their out of date regulations and highlight the lack of natural and moral justice through the imposition of their gag order will only serve to annoy their hunnery and strengthen their resolve. There will be no justice for the Catholic club, not in this country and not while they rule.
Therein lies the solution. It only serves to highlight the need for this Association to come into the 2000s and for the extinction of the dinosaurs to commence asap plz. HH
What was the point of De Marco if he couldn`t get Rodgers off? Was this not the reason he was hired? This talk of the SFA not backing down??? It should be a case of the decision going in Celtic`s favour because of this man`s skills. As I have already stated, a barrack-room lawyer should have been able to get him off. He is being denied freedom of expression for the future as well. There is some audio (Andy Walker) and plenty of video evidence for “Messi” to have won this case as a formality and yet he accepts a 50/50 split. If Rodgers had won today, he could have called out every unfair decision for evermore but it`s back now to square one: totally silenced. The one golden opportunity to take them to the cleaners and Mr de Messi misses a penalty against Barkas. Celtic`s own lawyer could have done just as well and it would only have cost them his day`s wages. This is a typical example of the saying: “if you get the name of an early riser, you can lie in bed all day”. This person obviously slept in.
And by the way, this was a victory for Old Firm Sevco. They don`t need to worry so much now about Rodger`s safety in whatever cubby/hole they would have to have placed him. This
would have been the main reason for the decision rather than someone`s legal skills.
Mate you are kidding yourself on if you thought we were getting away with this.
We were BANG TO RIGHTS. It doesn’t matter how fucked up the rules are, the rules are clear. There is an EXPLICIT prohibition on a manager questioning a referee’s competence and Rodgers used the specific term “incompetent.”
We were NEVER walking out there with a “no case to answer.” This was about scaring them out of a long-term ban, which, believe me, was their intent. We won this one. So chill out 🙂
Mate, Celtic themselves must have thought they would get away with it, otherwise McKay. would have defended them. The SFA are not infallible, They have managed to silence Celtic for good now. You were boasting a couple of days ago about bringing out the big guns but it was not one better than the “smoking gun”. A bit like Ashley’s tanks of the past. Pop guns were more appropriate. What about the evidence they were going to produce? Questions were to be asked re. Collum not getting Rangers’ games while Robertson gets to referee next week, etc.,etc.? Now it is we were NEVER walking out of there with “no case to answer”. Complete capitulation by all the Celtic support, going by anything I have read since. I thought all these “big guns” only took on cases they were sure of winning. A parochial committee chairwoman would have managed a better result. If there are any more dicey decisions from here on in, it will be a take us to court then chant,
Well what the heck is is he talking about wee will win 1-0 but ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??