If you believe the media, it was the officials who kept us in the Scottish Cup this weekend. That this is not even close to being true doesn’t bother them one bit. The result in extra time would not have been any different had Aberdeen got the late penalty.
If they had scored the match would have ended up in the same penalty shoot-out that we ended up with anyway because of our concession of that last ditch goal. Had the game been level when that moment happened then all this sound and fury might have had some purpose. Had they not got the late equaliser they would have had some grounds to complain.
But it made absolutely no difference at all to the outcome. None. Nada. Nil. All of this drum banging and moon-howling has no purpose whatsoever. But they do love a controversy when it casts a shadow over something Celtic has done, and really that is all this is, pitiful bitchery and whingeing because Celtic has made it to the final and has a chance at a double.
The incident in question, I thought was much ado about nothing. But even if you think it’s a clear penalty, I cannot take seriously some of the hacks who are howling about it. As I said in the article about the Aberdeen fans the other day, if these people want to finally start a serious conversation about the way officiating works then let’s do it, let’s have it.
But these people want to be allowed to pick and choose what they get outraged over. If they want credibility, they need to level the same anger at every decision that they think is wrong.
But they seem to reserve their outrage only for the decisions which go our way. There was certainly no real scrutiny of the dozens of incidents which involved the Ibrox club over the course of the campaign, and trying to get them to look at the data Alan Morrison has put together has proved absolutely impossible. None of them really care about this issue.
At Hampden yesterday, the match was refereed by a guy whose brother was a reserve player at the first Ibrox club. Their dad, who was a player at Kilmarnock, chose Rangers for his testimonial match. Stuart McLean himself was the referee at Hampden who “missed” the notorious Josh Meekings hand-ball, which denied Ronny Deila a treble.
None of this was deemed worthy of even token scrutiny from the mainstream press, although connections like that simply would not fly in any other top-flight European league. This stuff has been normalised to the extent that something as egregious as that doesn’t even raise eyebrows. It is an absolute scandal, and as we know it’s not the only one.
There is so much wrong with officiating in Scottish football that the Celtic fan websites get endless coverage of it; if we had to publish this stuff in print form rather than digitally an entire rain forest could give its life to cover the subject.
Aberdeen fans were pissed off this weekend. Celtic fans have been pissed off all season. Even the Ibrox fans have raged over refereeing decisions at some point. Is there any club which hasn’t? I don’t think so, and VAR in particular has infuriated everybody.
But only one club’s fans regularly discuss this, and if other clubs believe there is a problem they have done precious little about it. The media certainly does not want to know; they only ever rouse themselves properly when it’s Celtic getting the decisions. The next couple of days will be about two things; Ibrox getting hyped again and our club getting stick about being the beneficiaries of dodgy refereeing. These people are unbelievable.
Great piece… again…I watched ref watch on sky with Dermot Gallagher….. they never showed, looked at, or even mentioned the Liam Scales VAR issue.. I think that was because they would “have” to discuss the VAR in “the rangers” against hearts when silva fell over…… the penalty would have been given had a hearts player been anywhere near by….. just my opinion
As expected, the SMSM are chewing on the narrative that Celtic didn’t deserve to go through, that we were lucky not to concede two penalties. An article in the Record (on line) on Sat evening was accompanied by a picture which clearly showed that Scales handled the ball outside the box, ergo VAR has no locus on the decision which was made. On field officials missed it. It would have taken some incredibly creative artistry by the line drawers to place the offence in the box. Despite the clear evidence, the text of the article was still moaning about how we got away with one. Delusional or what?
In the 2nd incident when Johnston was wiped out in the air by Hoilett, had Johnston wiped out Hoilett in the same way, in that position, they, quite rightly, would have been screaming for a penalty. Hoilett jumped from well behind Johnston and knocked him to the ground, with neither player contacting the ball. Johnston jumped vertically. Hoilett initiated the contact, therefore he committed the foul. The ref might have been slow with the whistle, but a free kick to Celtic was the correct result. It was the same type of incident as Butland fouling his opposite number when he came up for a corner late in the day at Dingwall. He jumped into his opponent, preventing him from playing the ball. Everyone agreed it was a free kick to County. You have to ask why there is no similar agreement on it being a FK to Celtic?
I watched the highlights last night James and in the cold light of being calm the day after the event I back played the penalty incident several times…
The commentator of course screamed PENALTY TO ABERDEEN in utter delight as of course they would at BBC Scotland and you can clearly see Don Robertson point to the spot but in the very same pointing incident he clearly turns his arm towards The Toryglen End of Hampden to indicate a free kick to Celtic as the clear foul on Alastair Johnston happens very near the Penalty Spot so their screams of hope for an Aberdeen Penalty we’re moot screams regardless and The Aberdeen Manager was himself honest enough to admit this…
But of course being BBC Scotland they’d try to find something pathetic and of course they did…
So you have Thompson (ex Hun player and ‘St. Mirren’ fan) McCann (ex Hun player, ex Celtic supporter turned new Sevco fan) and Davidson (Probably a Hun, however I’ve no proof of this) all agreeing that the referee didn’t blow ‘quickly enough’ for the clear and obvious assault on Alastair Johnston…
I think I said in another thread that you’d have to raise this for days on end and that’s the way it’s gonna be in NOT so Bonnie Scotland…
But don’t be asking me to pick your Euromillions numbers tomorrow night as predicting that scenario was as obvious as it is to say that ‘Rangers’ as a football club are as dead as The Do-Do !!!
Clach,l’m not so sure about Mr Davidson being a hun tbh.
On the Sportscene highlights show last night when Mr Cuprinol said to McCann(of worms) about him playing in the last OF final 22 years ago,the bold Callum butted in and said OF in a questioning tone then started to laugh wholeheartedly !
He better be careful or the knuckledragging hordes will be putting him on Ze List !
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/6441130/ref-watch-where-was-var-after-celtics-cameron-carter-vickers-wiped-out-aberdeens-junior-hoilett/
The Ref in this case is called Finley Elder … who ??? Here is his credentials – Finlay Elder was a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official from 2019, with experience in the Highland League, Juniors and Club Academy.
So the 2 situations .. Scales was outside of the area and Johnstone was fouled in the build up …