Celtic Fans Aren’t The Ones Making A Ridiculous Argument On Refs Declaring Their Clubs.

Last night, someone sent me a clip of Radio Clyde’s ludicrous “discussion” on refereeing bias. I listened to it several times and the important thing to note is that none of them dismissed the central claim, that John Beaton is a supporter of the club that plays at Ibrox.

How could they dismiss it? It’s not even an open secret. It’s just open. It’s a fact and everyone in Scottish football knows it’s a fact.

Instead, we were treated to one of the most idiotic efforts to waive this issue aside that I have ever heard; if we made refs declare their allegiances, we would have nobody to take the big games. And refs are entitled to get those big games, even the ones which involve the clubs they’ve grown up supporting.

That’s a new one alright.

That’s a new argument, and far and away the most nonsensical one I have ever heard. It is joke that we, as Celtic fans, should have our concerns dismissed with such pitiful justifications, and ones which wouldn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny anywhere else in the game. No other country would allow this kind of thing to go on for all these years without getting a proper grip on it.

Chris Sutton apparently expressed his surprise the other day upon finding out that they make refs declare this stuff in England. How can he not know that already? Is this another example of him playing dumb? Because it’s not only in England they do this; this is common across Europe, in virtually every league and set-up. We are the outlier here; it is Scotland again which is in the tiny minority.

And I am moved to wonder; who exactly does our system protect? Why is this one of the only football associations which doesn’t do this as a matter of course? You listen to anyone who tries to sell the game here; on what basis do they do it? That we are (or we were) the home to “the bitterest rivalry in football.”

In Italy, where they have had every kind of corruption in the sport, it is inconceivable that they would allow an Inter fan to referee a Milan derby, or a Juventus fan to officiate at the Turin one.

Can you imagine the outcry if the EPL was decided on a bad decision in favour of Liverpool, given against Man City by a Liverpool fan?

It would never happen. It cannot happen because they have rules which explicitly prevent it from happening.

Those rules could be applied in Scotland in two seconds flat, but we won’t do it and Celtic stands back and allows this to continue and we have done for years.

We are expected to believe that out of all the officials in Europe that we are the only country where they are so steadfastly honest that even “the bitterest rivalry in football” makes no difference at all.

When the jackpot for winning this title is enough to erase years of Ibrox debt we’re meant to believe that it’s impossible for this to influence decisions.

We’re also supposed to believe that a Celtic supporting official might not give critical decisions the other way. It is preposterous to put people with that kind of conflict in that kind of spot.

It is farcical to expect us to believe that years of following one of these clubs ceases to matter once they pull on that SFA outfit.

There’s no way that this can be defended, and certainly not in the pathetic manner in which Clyde tried to do it the other day. Look, we either want a clean game or we don’t. We either care about the integrity of the sport or we continue to act like the stupidest kids in the class.

We either build a system that works for the clubs, all of them, or we persist with one which is built to protect SFA officials on their steady climb up the UEFA ladder … it’s scandalous that we’ve chosen the latter, and it’s scandalous that the clubs themselves continue to tolerate it.

This isn’t even up for debate any longer; we know that certain officials favour certain clubs. To continue to let them officiate in matches in which those clubs have a stake is tantamount to cheating, and especially at this stage in a close campaign.

There’s no other way to put it than that we permit a system that is fundamentally bent.

And we are not the only club who suffers for that and it’s high time that fact started to penetrate more deeply into the consciousness of fans of other clubs, fans who believe that “you never get a decision against the Glasgow teams”.

If they really believe it, what in God’s name have they been doing about it all these years?

They are getting very good at demanding that their clubs limit the number of tickets our fans get, but they’re happy to let one referee the games?

Are these people just not tuned into the right frequency or what? How many European places have been lost by this stuff? How many potential cup finals? Do they genuinely care? Because I don’t see any other club being put under pressure by its own fans over this.

Imagine Beaton officiates the Ibrox club’s game against Ross County, just before the split. Imagine he gives a dreadful decision in that match which consigns them to the foot of the table and the near certainty of relegation?

Are they comfortable with that possibility?

Are St Mirren or Kilmarnock, separated by one point in the fight for fourth place, and Europe, really going to leave their fates in the hands of John Beaton at Ibrox?

They can’t possibly accept that, or so you’d think anyway … but they have been accepting it, and they’ve been accepting it now for years.

Hearts fans are gleeful right now about Beaton’s decisions, but they have to know that they’ll be on the end of something just as bent if they find themselves at Ibrox and leading with a minute to go only for a questionable penalty to against them, and if that scenario sounds familiar it should be … because on 29 October last year Beaton did exactly that to them, and they lost the game.

Oh, and by the way, that was the second penalty he awarded the home side in that match.

It is worth looking at Steve Naismith’s comments from that day, because even with his obvious pro-Ibrox leanings he was pretty cheesed that afternoon and pointed the finger squarely at Beaton for costing his side the game.

“The game hinges on the penalty decision. I don’t think it is a penalty. At every corner there was blocking, where (their) players were not even interested in the ball. All they are doing is looking at our man, blocking our player. I spoke to officials during the game who said if that happened and it was given as a goal, it would be given as a foul. Lo and behold, at the end of the game there is a clear block on our man.

“John Lundstram is not even interested in the ball, all he is doing is looking at our player and he blocks him and then it is given by VAR. I spoke to the referee who said he never gets shown any video footage of any block happening. He said it (the video) didn’t go that far back but it is pretty obvious.

“Clear blocking, clear obstruction, it should be our foul. VAR should see there is a foul happened before the two players (Haring and Goldson) make contact. Then the penalty in the first half. There is two minutes added on and that is given in the 48th minute. Small details can have a big impact.”

That’s a description of match-fixing. That’s all that it is.

But Hearts fans should have been asking why Beaton was even allowed on the pitch that day, because they know what we all know, that he’s is an Ibrox club supporter and in any other major football nation would not have been permitted to officiate his own team.

But nobody objected and nobody will the next time either.

I refuse to believe that if refs declared their allegiances that we’d have “none left to do the games.” And even if, by some chance, that proved to be correct, there are options including bringing in refs from abroad where necessary, and there’s nothing controversial about that suggestion and nor is there anything difficult or complicated involved in it.

There’s another excuse which is frequently offered up; “Officials will just lie …” And that’s not really an answer as to why we shouldn’t do this, it’s an excuse not to and it’s a particularly weak one. It doesn’t even rise to the level of primary school playground debate.

It’s just another way of evading responsibility and ducking the issue. Frankly, it’s not even worth engaging with that, it’s just too stupid. We’re talking about a signed statement as a condition of employment, in the social media era, in a small country where there are no secrets. It’s not as simple as just saying “I’m an Arbroath fan” and taking your chances.

There are many more good reasons to do this than not to.

Do we want fans to have confidence in officials? This is how to do it.

If the ref’s association wants the craziness to stop, if it wants to give its members greater protection, then they should be in favour of greater transparency.

The reason for so much of the rising anger is that certain refs are stalked by rumours and the preferences of others are an acknowledged fact … and that is where the problems lie. Not only do I think this is an atrocious thing for clubs to have to tolerate, I don’t believe it’s fair or appropriate to put the officials themselves in that position.

The panellists on that dire radio phone in show evidently disagree and what pisses me off most listening to the abysmally low IQ’s and the rock bottom level of the debate they were having is that they think we’re the ones on the fringes and on the margins.

They treat us as though we were the ones howling at the moon.

But what they are suggesting that we accept is so far outside of those margins that no other top league in Europe would accept anything remotely like it, and nor do UEFA who will not allow officials to referee games involving clubs from their own nations.

The question I’d ask Gordon Daziel and the rest of that goon squad on there, and anybody else who wants to make such a half-witted point is very simple; if this doesn’t matter, imagine how you’d feel if UEFA changed its own regulations and Scotland found itself, on the day of our opening fixture in the Euros this summer against Germany, being told that the match would be officiated by Daniel Siebert and his Bundesliga assistants.

Still think it’s cool? Still think it doesn’t matter?

Hey, the German FA could just tell you that its officials are honest, that this is conspiracy theory crap, that you’re howling at the moon. Cause that’s how the media treats us whenever we raise the same concern.

I’ve got news for you; we’re not the ones howling at the moon here.