The SFA Will Have Major Questions To Answer If It Tries To Sanction The Celtic Boss.

Today Celtic has done what some people didn’t expect. I had my doubts about it myself. I thought we’d wimp on releasing an official statement in defence of the club and the manager, but we have not. We’ve issued one that no only expresses our intention to appeal the decision to send off our winger Yang, but we’ve questioned the use of VAR.

Well done to the club for standing up here. There are people will say that our statement does not go far enough. It went as far as it had to. The real battle might be in front of us, and if we’re holding fire in anticipation of that I can’t say I disagree too strongly.

According to the media this afternoon, Brendan Rodgers is facing an SFA probe for his criticism of the officials in the aftermath of the game.

Everyone at Celtic should welcome that probe. They should welcome the opportunity to present a case. Our club might not do everything it can to seek reform but it has historically been very robust when it comes to defend our people from this stuff. This is an opportunity to go on the offensive. We need to rally the legal team for a start.

Because any SFA probe into us will open up a big can of worms. If they are fine with that then hey-ho, let’s go. But they better be sure they’re on solid ground.

Where was the sanction for the Ibrox club when they demanded that Collum get no further games against them? You could reel off a list of offences there.

Where was the sanction when previous bosses over there have been openly critical of officials?

Let’s put this plainly; if you want to go by the strict interpretation, Rodgers has breached the rules. He’s used the word incompetence. That’s one of the things managers are not allowed to do. But when you look at those decisions most people agree that incompetence is one of only two possible explanations for those calls. An entire industry is poring over the decisions and almost everyone agrees the penalty decision is farcical. Almost everyone thinks the red card decision is a joke.

Of the two possible explanations, incompetence is the least politically charged one, because the other is to say it’s down to corruption. When Ibrox has specifically alleged the second possibility and gotten away with it, it will be a disgrace if we can’t point out the obvious case for at least suggesting the first. That you aren’t “allowed” to question the professional skills of people who simply aren’t up to doing their job is an utter absurdity. It infantilises everyone in the game.

It would be shocking if they even tried to do this. The SFA Itself might not care, but the idea that managers can’t ask those questions when decisions as bad as this are being made in games is ridiculous, and not only must Celtic challenge it but most other managers and even the media should welcome it when we do.

I am very cynical when it comes to the Celtic board, but even I know we’re not just going to allow this when all Rodgers has done is express his shock at a couple of blatantly bad decisions. The club will not let him be sanctioned without putting up a fight, not when other clubs have gotten away with much, much worse. Letter of the law or not, this would be a step too far.

The SFA wants to wrap officials in cotton wool; we’ve long argued that this is one of the stupidest things they could do. For openers, if you want to improve standards and make officials earn their money you can’t have them be immune to getting scrutiny or stick. Any professional body knows that.

But this goes much further. This also creates exactly the conditions under which corruption can thrive, whether that’s match fixing or bias.

Our statement today is just the start, and I suspect we’re putting it out there as an early warning shot should they decide to haul Rodgers up for a chat. Yes, he’s technically in breach of the rules but we can all name other clubs which have done worse and gotten away with it.

Maybe the time has come to debate not only the performances of individual officials but the rules themselves, and that’s why we should welcome the chance to. This farce of protecting refs no matter how poor their performances are has gone on long enough.