You know what I was doing when I heard that the Ibrox club had been awarded a penalty kick against Hibs this afternoon?
This is no joke. I was listening to the ACSOM podcast with the ever-excellent Alan Morrison on it, talking about “patterns of assistance” and the way the Ibrox club has benefited from decisions. Alan’s case is compelling. It was just made more so.
What makes it astonishing – their club getting an SPFL penalty when in dire need is not in the least bit surprising far lest astonishing – is that this was so certain today, so absolutely nailed on to happen, that the Hibs official Twitter feed actually joked about it when it happened.
This is what they put up on their live match thread.
Maybe some of their fans find that funny. I know a lot of the Ibrox fans do; they laugh at the whole of Scottish football every time something like this goes down. Every time.
They know what they are watching as well as we do, and they know upon whom they can rely. David Dickinson refereeing with Andrew Dallas on VAR?
Remember Andrew Dallas? Remember his dad?
When I put together the data on who has refereed the Ibrox club’s league games since Willie Collum was banned from doing it, Dickinson and Dallas are two of the names who come up over and over again. Dallas is one of the “full time VAR officials” when there’s not even the remotest doubt what his personal proclivities are. It runs in the family.
Alan Morrison’s work on this stuff is quite brilliant, and this was a good time to highlight the issue again. A Celtic fan initiative has just been launched which is seeking to get the signatures of 100 shareholders and present a submission to the club over the need for refereeing reform.
The idea is to start a proper debate about this stuff instead of having it on the margins; I’ll be doing a larger piece on that subject, but the margins are where this debate has traditionally been had, and it’s there in part because no club wants to put it front and centre.
Which isn’t the same as saying that no club recognises the issue. They all recognise the issue. They recognise it so much that they openly laugh about it. But there’s a difference between recognising what’s going on and being willing to do something about it and that’s the grey area in which too much of Scottish football seems content to live.
One of the most fundamentally important things that Alan Morrison says in that ACSOM podcast, and which he’s repeated numerous times on social media in the immediate aftermath, is that this is an issue affecting more than just one club.
Not that you would know that to see the way the debate is viewed elsewhere, with most supporters outside Glasgow scorning it as a local obsession. But they aren’t as stupid as this makes them sound, and they aren’t unaware that going to Ibrox presents a very different challenge, in terms of the officials, than coming to Celtic Park.
There is no discussion in this game more requiring a grown-up examination. Hibs should raise Hell over that decision, although the penalty was missed anyway.
They certainly expected something along those lines, but bizarrely have done nothing about it to make these events less likely.
But hey, the Tweet was funny, but I would hope that the fans of a team sitting seventh in the table before that game started today didn’t find it amusing in the least.
A defeat today virtually condemns them to the bottom six … so I wouldn’t be joking about it if I were in their shoes, I’d damned well be determined to confront this issue, all the better to try and fix it.
Watched the ACSOM podcast…The evidence is damning. Even more evident now with VAR, corruption in plane sight.
Will anything be done about it?
Nothing will be done about it willingly.
Change will only come when outside agencies act.
Sponsors to renege on their contract due to being associated with the corruption.
( There is a reason why the SFA can’t get a proper Sponsor for their Cup Tournaments).
Sly Sports to start asking questions ( well we can hope)
Betting Companies to refuse any bets on Scottish football thus highlighting the corruption AND poor standards of officiating.
Push for Ombudsman for the Sport akin to the English model
Our Local & National Government taking an interest and asking questions. Remember the SFA receives millions of our tax payments every year. Where does it go?
Our Local & National Government to finally address the racism and religious bigotry in Scotland and force Police Scotland to uphold the Laws that are already on the Statute Book. To bar from Public Office members of Secret (or secretive societies, remember the SFA is a Private Ltd Company)
Perception, remember that.
These last two should be getting dealt with anyway but it is instructive that the corruption of the Sport is a byproduct of both issues as they feed into the Supremacist ideology that permeates the SFA and the Refereeing Fraternity.
EUFA finally made to sit up and notice and review the evidence and step in.
Clubs like Aberdeen, Hibs and even Hearts have got to realise that without the ‘assisted progression’ then the Tribute Act would be a middle of the table team at best and that by allowing the corruption to continue by their silence they are doing themselves out of the prospect of Europa league places and the revenue that that can bring. And that extra revenue can mean a lot to provincial clubs.
It can be used to hold down Season Book and ticket prices. It can be used to modernise their grounds. It can be used to acquire the next level players that can be used to challenge for the Cups on offer and eventually over a period make a sustainable attempt at the League title.
It’s in their own self interest and they’re not willing to see it.
If any of these teams were interested in increasing revenue they would gladly open the gates to away fans rather than restrict the number.
Good point Hugh.
I wonder what they will do now that there is an arrangement with the Tribute Act for next Season.
Will they stick to their guns or will the SPFL force them to remove their bans on away tickets.
Remember that these bans on away fans has been driven by the Home team’s Fans.
The Clubs themselves will be glad to lift the bans saying that their hands were tied as the SPFL forced them to remove the bans.
SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS – They won’t say anything and even then it’d be lip service only on the smallest scale…
They will be terrified of losing the sectarian (blue) pounds twice a season…
And terrified that no insurance company would entertain them when the threat to burn their stadiums to the ground would be forthcoming…
And they would be !
Can expect much more of this in these remainin games. Makes ye wonder, if there’s even any point us hopin we can win this league. (Although ah obviously will until it’s over). They’ll get their help. The officials know it, ibrox knows it, their support know it, their media know it and they’ll all dae their usual in findin ways tae deny, defend it, or make ridiculous comparisons. Win at all costs.
i thought the pen was justified james…especially seeing the slow-mo….but was astonished when wright was ruled to have stepped into the box too early…i thought both he and the defender were in sync….
i watched the first 40mins of the game on rfctv…john brown was co commentator – SUCH a fukn oaf !!
hibs are an AWFUL side…terrible…and the huns toiled to beat them….
if we get 3 points tomorrow, and we have all our players fir for next week…i have no doubt we will take them…they are a shite team.
This is exactly what I have been waiting decades for. Irrefutable evidence collated and catalogued rather than anecdotal moaning. We’ve been awarded more penalties than them this season do what’s our problem? As always, the devil is in the detail.
Well done to all concerned for this analytical break down of where our gripes stem from.
As always, IT’S A PENALTY TO RANGERS (sic)!!!!!
I found the most telling part of the ACSOM Podcast was when Allan said he’d spoken to a journalist about the stats and he said nobody in the SMSM would touch it. The stats are staring everyone in the face and nobody in the media wants to know. The stats about opponents incursions into your box before being awarded a penalty are unbelievable. I think the average was about 142, Celtic came in about 147 and the rangers 372 (from memory so maybe not exact!) Nothing to see here!
if the huns win the league this season….the MAIN culprits won’t be…philip clement and his team….var and the men in black…injuries…or covid…the culprits will be sitting in the seats reserved for boardroom members…..
WHERE was the danger from var and the MIB when we were 8 points clear….?
no doubt about it. if we lose the league…the bastards in our boardroom along with BR will have a very convenient, excuse/reason to point at…
don’t let the current shit-show camouflage the over-all shit-show at celtic park lads…
The acsom podcast was brilliant, well done Alan Morison. Now it’s up to the Celtic fans to stop paying to be cheated or STFU, this I’ll pay to be cheated because I don’t want to lose my seat is going to cost us 50M, grow a pair.
Oh I stopped paying a while back Sid in a pure rage about comments from Neil Doncaster about ‘Rangers’ (His lies, not mine) being the same club Absolutely (again his lies and not mine)…
But seeing the podcast actually in a perverse way makes me feel a helluva lot better now for giving up ma season ticket !
Because whoever has that seat now is suffering in a way that I was but just a helluva lot more than I did…