Rodgers was angrier at full time today than I’ve heard him in a long time, and it’s overdue. Had we questioned some of the appalling decisions from officials when we were winning games – as some of us have long urged – we might not be here today where some of the more desperate hacks are going to say that this is sour grapes following a defeat.
But there is no smokescreen here. That’s as clear an example of a single official making ridiculous decisions that directly influenced the result of a match that you will ever see. John Beaton decided that game, and if he’d got those decisions right there would be nothing to talk about. But neither of them was even close. They are outrageous.
Rodgers got some stick from The Village Idiot for personally naming John Beaton in his attack. Well, first, I’ll accept that criticism when someone plays back what he said about the Ibrox club deliberately targeting Collum. Not one whisper to that effect escaped his mouth.
Secondly, if we don’t start naming and shaming people how are we going to get better? Nobody at Celtic is saying Beaton shouldn’t referee our games after all, and not even in tactical briefings to bloggers. I don’t think any Celtic fans wants to see him do so, but the club has not got an official policy on this one way or the other and the manager wasn’t trying to set one.
He is focussed on one game, today’s game, saying that Beaton should be personally accountable for that travesty and that’s a wholly legitimate view to take. It is exactly the view that the club should be taking as well, and they should make a statement to that end.
Celtic will never demand that an individual ref be banned from doing our games. But we can insist on higher standards and we can state our view, and it will be shared by other clubs, that officials should be accountable and sanctioned when they fall below those standards, otherwise how do you expect ever to improve them?
Beaton’s decisions today come at a critical juncture in this title race.
If the league is decided by a point, who will argue that this game didn’t play a critical role? Those decisions were so completely wrong as to render them virtually indefensible. If you think that they are just a result of incompetence and not bias you are fully entitled to that view, but in holding that view you have to accept that he shouldn’t be in charge of any further top flight game, because you simply can’t trust him to get the big calls right.
This is a perverse situation for our club to have permitted in the first place. Nothing happened today which wasn’t totally expected. We even had former ref Steve Conroy in the media this very week suggesting that officials might decide the destination of this title, and the longer we in this game continue with the VAR farce the worse it gets.
That’s something else our club should be committing itself to; ridding our league of this “technology” once and for all, on the understanding that all it has accomplished is that it gives our enemies more chances than ever to do us harm. Nobody in the game would have agreed to its introduction knowing that it would actually make matters worse, and if we were the first club to call it out and say we’re not willing to pay for its retention we wouldn’t be alone.
Something has to give. How much more damage to this campaign are we going to let those at Hampden do? On a weekend when the Ibrox club has demonstrated to other clubs that it’s beatable (just not to Hearts, who did exactly what they were supposed to today in total contrast to their utter surrender last weekend) we are damned lucky that it hasn’t completely upended our campaign and put this title race almost out of reach.
We can consider this a warning shot, not a coup de grâce. We had bloody better heed it and start working, right now, to prevent Hampden’s officials from harming us any further.
Beaton shouldnt be anywhere near a Celtic match.
This guy is a cheat.We know what he is.
This Celtic board will say/do nothing.Credit to Brendan for calling this rat out for what he is.
I can understand the anger over Lawell and the general way the club is ran. I can understand questions over Rodgers decision making. I can understand the frustration over a series of poor transfer windows. None of that matters today. All that matters are the disgraceful decisions of the officials, particularly Beaton on VAR, and how they massively impacted the ultimate result of the match.
We started brightly with Yang, playing brilliantly on the right. We should have been ahead with Adam Idah’s missed penalty. THEN came that unbelievable decision to RED card the mild mannered Yang. Did he show any intent to hurt the incorrigible cheat that is Hearts fullback Cochrane? If you watch the moment again you see that Yang’s foot never moves toward Cochrane’s face or ever makes contact with it- on the contrary Cochrane runs headlong toward Yang. Yes, I can understand Yang maybe being given a yellow for a recklessly high foot, but to send him for a straight RED is just an incredible decision. The Shankland offside goal was fairly striaght forward. Then we had the absolutely demented decision to give a penalty against Iwata, who at no time is aware of where the ball is, or shows any intent, nor gains any advantage (akin to the Bernabei VAR penalty against Dundee Utd last season- and of course just a coincidence the most ludicrous VAR decisions both happened against Celtic).
It is time Rodgers showed some passion. There is next to nothing Celtic could have done today to win that came. Yes we should have scored the penalty. But with ELEVEN men on the pitch we are winning that came all day long. The only hope Hearts (and SEVCO) had today was from the officials and they did their job very well indeed. Any Celtic fan who criticises the players today is not a real Celtic fan. No way can anyone real Celtic fan blame the players or Rodgers for what happened today. Its hard enough with 11, never mind 10, against the blood and snotters mini’s at Hatecastle. I welcome Rodgers speaking out today. I just hope the board back him and have his back. Today was an absolute travesty.
I’ve said it a hundred times, var should only be used on matters of fact, offside, did the ball cross the line etc. any subjective is just, subjective. Ask enough people and you’ll get plenty of differing answers.
It’s so blatantly wrong. The sending off was wrong, the penalty was 200% utterly wrong. It’s a total disgrace. Operation help the huns.
Most of us despise PL [?] for the delusional, overbearing, beancounter he is.
NOW is the time when PL can prove us all wrong?
He should take the fight to the SFA / SPFL.
Or will he remain the ‘Non-Exec Chairman’ many of us dismiss him as:
a lucky, delusional, mute, and grossly overpaid tw@t ?
This season feels like a two pronged attack on the Celtic supporters. You’ve got the entirely predictable VAR cheating from the usual suspects, and the second attack from the clowns that run our club. Steeped in nepotism and cronyism hording the fans cash to an extent that it looks like it’s going to do us serious harm for the next three or four years, minimum.
All entirely preventable with a modicum of ambition and forward thinking.
Sfa is corrupt Beaton must of looking at various in the rangers. Pub where he goes
Masonic VAR referees sit and scrutinise every player’s movement in Celtics box then ask the referee to take a second look coincidentally they always seem to miss every infringement against us VAR has done nothing but make it easier for Masonic referees to have more influence over who wins rangers have been gifted several injury time penalties to help them keep in the title race NOT COINCIDENTAL all teams should boycott the league until this corrupt system is flushed out and in the meantime the referees game allocations should be drawn out a hat live it’s blatant bias and in the interests of fair play this issue needs addressed immediately all the SPL teams that feel there is a need for reform should refuse to play games until a solution is reached
What decisions were wrong James?
Yang’s red card was indeed endangering an opponent, therefore a red card – just ask the St Mirren lad against Joe Hart at the start of the year.
Both penalties given were incorrect in my opinion, but that’s one on each side, and we are incapable of capitalizing when it’s our turn, as you yourself mentioned in your last article. Beaton could have easily intervened on our penalty and did not.
The officiating this season HAS been disgraceful at times, and I would not trust Beaton any further than I could throw him, but this game was not decided by an incorrect reffing decision. It was decided by our own player’s inability to not make a crazy challenge.
Beaton could indeed be sacked for incompetence, but so could every single referee in this country. You are strongly implying cheating, and I am inclined to agree in general – but it was not the cause of today’s defeat and yourself and Brendan are wrong to go on record saying that it was.
It’s not over yet, but we need to find some long lost cojones in the last 9 games.
Absolute guff. There are a handful of people in this country who believe that those decisions were justified.
Glad your not a Referee. Remember when the Ordering off for a professional foul was introduced and the reasons for the introduction? It was because of the intent to foul. Most others are without intent and the high boot was always termed dangerous play with the game being restarted with an indirect free kick. Hand ball also had to have an intent to cheat. Where did those two incidents meet that criteria?
The game is rigged and this year Sevco must win the league. I’ve been saying they definitely will even when we were 4 in front. I judge people by their actions and not what they say. Celtic done nothing and said nothing about the cheating and also bought projects then never tried to rectify that in January despite huge cash reserves. Celtic’s actions say we are happy for Sevco to win the league. Every time Celtic threaten to pull clear the reigns are tightened, are people really believing this is all coincidence? No way!
On the nail Sid.
last october Beaton gave sevco a penalty 89th minute and played 9 extra mins for sevco to beat hearts 2 1 , my son in law was visiting from england as we watched this cheating unfold, he was laughing at the game
today we saw Beaton at his worse again and he has been the same for some years now , it’s beyond a joke now and the only ones laughing are Beaton , sevco fans and Lawell .
how can the share holders at celtic not be concerned like the fans of the club who for years have been treated with contempt , derision , accused of paranoia to see Beaton and others to use Var like a personal toy to decide games in favor of their club ? it is total and utter collusion .
Beaton has single handedly made a huge influence on the winners of the league and the loss of 60 million to CFC , in any other field he would be suspended and investigated , and fired for corruption .
how can the board of celtic not be concerned at this mans actions which will more than likely decide where the 60 million pounds C L money ends up ? thats a concern for all true celtic people who have been failed miserably by this board
It’s a pity Infantino hadn’t taken in that game too. Lawwell could make himself useful by using his powers in Europe by suggesting a Stewards Enquiry type set up, as in horse racing, to investigate match fixing.
Fair point, tho imo today, beaton proved beyond doubt that he can’t be trusted tae do his job impartially. He shouldnae be near another Celtic game, or any game involvin the ibrox club eithr for that matter. Maybe a ‘positive’ if there is one in this, is that by his actions today, he’s put himself under severe scrutiny from now on and his professional reputation, if he has one, in real doubt. Personally this will never end imo, unless we get outside officials in and that’s no gonnae happen any time soon. Ultimately it’s up tae our own clubs directors tae step up and dae spmethin about it.
One thing that surprised me this week were the comments made by other F1 teams on the Red Bull stuff with their Chief Executive. I thought it odd that teams would comment on what was happening at another team.
But in the context of Scottish refereeing I think we need to start calling out poor decisions across all games on the weekend (including at our own regardless of the result) to highlight how poor and officiating has become. There’s either a lack of awareness of the rules or a wilful disregard for them among our referees and only by keeping the spotlight on the performances will we have any hope of improving standards.
I think it’s fair to say most comments agree that Beaton again, showed his true colours today and ensured that his bias ( or match fixing,) would influence the game, in favour of his favourite team.
It’s a disgrace, it’s been going on far too long and if today doesn’t provide the evidence or seminal moment to push for his demise and those of a similar bias, then football is completely feked!!!
Nothing has changed since we saw VAR being utilised for the first time at the same ground…that day we won 4-3 despite various glaring ‘errors,’ or ‘ honest mistakes!’
The stakes are now so high for Sevco that the cheating has reached new heights ( or lows,)
It’s now time for this to be called out, tapes of today heard and Beaton to be shown a red card, and his refereeing career fully sine died.
Clubs and fans should now be looking for full transparency, a complete overhaul and independent governance of our game and hiring of officials!!!
I grew up in a small scheme in Motherwell namely Jerviston and John Beaton wore Rangers strips as a teenager , his family are all bluenoses.
He offiated a Glasgow Derby where he missed 3 off the ball Morelos lash outs in a 1-0 home win for his heroes., ironically he would have been called to the screen if we had VAR then for all 3 incidents he missed.
In the aftermath of that game he thought it was ok to go into The Crown Bar Bellshill where no doubt he was getting knowing winks and handshakes a plenty.
He should never have offiated at a Celtic game or Rangers game for that matter.
Today was even worse , locked away out of the public eye in a room where he was in full control .
There was an eerie quiet at the game today as everybody in the stadium knew what was happening right in front of our eyes.
Celtic have to stand up to this blatant cheating.
Saying that Idah score me from the spot we most likely win so partly our own fault.
I believe ?
I don’t know when Celtic fans will learn, stand up and take action.
Our board does not give a flying f about the fans. You are.moaning about a couple of decisions today.
THEY DID NOTHING ABOUT 10 YEARS OF CHEATING !!
I had three tickets and sat through all that and I will not return until those titles are rectified.
So it either a sporting competition or just a wee afternoon out. I preferred both thinking I was watching a professional sport.
So until you hurt the club and MAKE them stop taking your money for granted the seriously what you moaning about …..they’ve shown you many times they don’t give a txxx
What I cannot fathom is why we never spoke up when we were winning and still being cheated…
Brendan will just be accused of sour grapes given the result –
However speaking out after a defeat caused by cheats is better than not speaking out at all I suppose !
When I saw the strange posture of Idah, not knowing whether he was going to take it with his right or left foot, I told my wife he was going to miss it. It looked as if he had hit it with both feet at the wind up. Even near the end, he seemed, by his laughter, to think it was all very amusing.
James, if Fergus was still our owner back in 2018 when Beaton was photographed drinking and posing for selfies with the regulars in the Loyalist Crown Bar pub with a big ear-to-ear GRIN on his ugly coupon, after allowing Morelos to get away with assaulting three Celtic players in the Glasgow derby, ALL of which were red card offences, he wouldn’t BE a Ref today as Fergus would have pursued him in the same way he did Jim Farry over the Jorge Cadete player registration scandal and wouldn’t have stopped until BEATON had also been sacked. We can but hope that after watching that yesterday, Dermot Desmond will be so angry and the penny will have finally dropped with him about how biased and CORRUPT Beaton is against Celtic, he will take a leaf out of Fergus’ book and try and get him SACKED.