The news that John Beaton is refereeing Sunday’s match should not surprise a single one of us. Crawford Allan is going out with a bang. They’ve already given us Don Robertson for Livingston and now we’ve got Beaton. Celtic should be outraged, and behind the scenes I am sure that we are. But on their own heads be it, at Parkhead and Hampden both.
We did what we had to do in the Rodgers case. We secured our primary objective. But we remain at the mercy of decisions such as this, and it’s a decision which reeks, which stinks to high heaven, and especially in light of Willie Collum’s complete absence at league games against the club across the city.
Beaton is an open insult to us. It is an open challenge. It is an implicit threat from Hampden that we might have won a battle, but they can win the war.
Well, Celtic needs to send the clearest possible message to them about that, and I would prefer we did not do it in private but in public. I would prefer that we considered the full range of effects should the match be decided by an “Honest Mistake.”
There are tens of millions of pounds at stake here. At what point does an intervention from Crawford Allan’s little toy soldiers represent an unacceptable risk?
Let me put it this way, Celtic has a responsibility to its own shareholders.
None of us cares about dividends or profit and loss statements when it comes right down to it, but that doesn’t mean that the club does not have a legal obligation to protect those things, to protect the share price, to assure that the club is not disadvantaged.
The potential loss of a guaranteed Champions League bounty, this season of all seasons, is too large to just ignore. Shareholders won’t let the club away with doing that, and nor should they.
Bad enough to lose this title when our own board is responsible for the gross failure to strengthen the team properly … to lose it to the “pattern of assistance” would be a scandal for the ages, and all the more so as it’s being so blatantly telegraphed in advance.
If the people running Celtic have any sense, they will get in front of this.
They should release a statement this week on our concerns over officiating.
They should make it abundantly clear that they will protect the institution from any such intervention. They will send a clear warning to Hampden that if this campaign comes down to an “Honest Mistake” that we will aggressively pursue that matter as far as we can and deliver whatever evidence we’ve accumulated along the way to whichever body is qualified to hear it.
There cannot be any question of meek acquiescence.
There cannot be any question of simply shrugging it off as one of those things.
If we’re robbed of this title – and that would be the appropriate word in the circumstances – there would be no question of simply accepting it in and moving on.
My generation of fans have already seen cheating on an industrial scale go essentially unpunished and it’s the fervent belief of many of us that those currently sitting on our board were guilty of doing too little to prevent that. We’re simply not going to tolerate that again, especially with Desmond and Lawwell still holding the controls.
This club is duty bound to guard us against that to the best of its ability or to take robust action in the event of it. If those running Celtic won’t serve the best interests of the small shareholders then our issue will not only be with Hampden, it’ll be with Celtic itself.
it is not often I am totally shocked and stunned by the a-holes who run our game, but this time my gast is completely flabbered and I am absolutely furious.
The recent statement from the Union of SFA and referees complained that Brendan’s comments put referees in danger – where does that leave this decision?
This decision was obviously made at a Masonic meeting to try to even up the decision to let Brendan attend next Sunday’s match.
The Celtic board need to report this to UEFA before it gets any more out of hand.
Think that sums up what most of us are thinkin-demandin. No just for this Sunday game, in all the games left. Where’s wee Fergus when ye need him.
So much for the big lawyer at Rodgers hearing. It didn’t bother the SFA a bit. They have carried on under their usual agenda. Celtic are like a poor bullied kid who can’t and/or won’t do anything about it
Over to ” Don Desmond ” as Phil Mcgiolla Bhain Calls him.
Totally unbelievable that Beaton has been given this match.
A complete slap in the face to Celtic FC and our fans. This guy should be nowhere near our games . This is the SFA getting back at Brendan and our sports lawyer …shocking!
Celtic should go public with a complaint.
Yes James, it is a total GIRFUY to our Club and Celtic should not accept it in any way shape or form without publicly condemning it and threatening repercussions should the referee influence the outcome.
This is as blatant a GIRFUY to Dermot the Donkey as the huns at Hampdump could possibly muster.
Desmond is reputed to take no prisoners when it comes to things which affect him financially and,more importantly,personally.
Time for the Paddy golfer with one club too many to either put up or shut up !
I’m hoping he views this as a gauntlet being thrown at his feet and he picks the thing up and bitch slaps the SFA into extinction with it.
Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom to start to rise up…….Hopefully,this is our nadir and the beginning of theirs.
Don’t hold your breath though,James
After over 70 years of being a supporter and paying customer of Celtic I’m ready to cry enough, since the 1960’s discrimination in the workplace against minority groups in Scotland has slowly improved. sensible employers have mostly looked for the best people available whatever their race or religion.
In Scotland one of the last bastions of sectarianism and racism in Scotland is the SFA who discriminate against Celtic because of the clubs historical link to Irish Immigrants and Catholicism.
Since VAR has arrived the questionable decisions going against Celtic have increased alarmingly. The media both print and broadcasting in Scotland will not question the situation as they also are compromised because of their employment policy.
Where Celtic go from here I honestly don’t know but surely the Lawyers,Accountants and a Billionaire like Desmond on the board have the clout and acumen to DO something.
The SFA are pissing all over the support,shareholders and most of all the Board who are supposed to protect their paying customers and shareholders. It can’t go on, to start with Celtic should threaten to withdraw from next seasons Scottish Cup which is the only competition organised by the SFA the others are organised by the SPFL and UEFA.
Lawwell could do something useful for a change, invite his top drawer cronies from FIFA / UEFA to a 5 star outing to watch the sevco game and make sure if confirmed let everyone at the SFA know that their attendance will be high profile.
Then let’s see if the SFA want to let Europe’s finest watch
MATCH FIXING AT IT’S FINEST .
Beaton getting the game isn’t an issue for me, the treatment of Collum is though. I sort of understand that if Beaton was deemed to have had a bad VAR game then he stays off VAR. But we shouldn’t vetoing refs and we should be insisting on full transparency on match allocations.
Personally I think Nick Walsh is one of the best refs available and if not on the pitch then good to have him on VAR (although I do think the training provided on VAR for refs has been deficient and that is very much on Crawford Allan).
The whole refereeing infrastructure needs a complete overhaul in the summer and options should be considered for sharing referees across countries to allow full time professional refs, with more consistent application of rules across Europe. I think it was Roma who scored a wonderful overhead kick in Europe a couple of weeks back – goal chopped off for a high boot but the ref didn’t even consider going to his pocket. Too much inconsistency in the application of the global rules.
Serves us right for not dealing with Beaton when we should have i.e. when he was pictured smiling in a Sevco pub after refereeing a Glasgow Derby.
The picture could’ve been photoshopped Droopy – But given that he (Beaton) has never challenged that theory it’s clearly genuine to the core…
Aye well then – As our own Celtic celebrity supporter Rod Stewart did sing…
“Every Picture Tells a Story” !!!
they are just fukn laughing at us……unreal……ONLY in “dead brilliant wee scotland…”
meanwhile….willie collum nowhere near the huns….
fuk the sfa and spfll…..EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. SHAMEFUL.
A referee who mingles with CELTIC supporters … another is employed by CELTIC… and a referee CELTIC complained about who has never refereed a CELTIC game since that complaint …… that would just never be allowed to happen and rightly so…….. but that’s exactly what is happening this weekend at Ibrox….. but they will not be administering the rules of the game…. they’ll be rooting for 1 team… and it won’t be CELTIC
Ah believe the sfa couldnae care what happens after this season. It’s about ‘get ibrox this title at all costs’. As long as they get the 70-80 million tae keep them alive, that’s all that matters. They can deal wi all the fallout about bent officials after they’ve accomplished their objective. By that time, far as the sfa, ibrox, it’s support and media are concerned it won’t matter. Who cares right ! Job done ! Money’s in the ibrox bank and theyre in a good place. AIDED BY CORRUPTION. Are Desmond & co gonnae sit back and take that ?!
A simple response to your headline James – ‘THEY WON’T !!!!!!
I don’t think Beaton should be anywhere near the game on Sunday but think of the pressure on him & the sfa to for once make it honest.
I also think it was a certainty that he was the ref.
Our board do not want them to go bust & if no CL money next season they will be very close to it, so is it our board playing games or just a corrupted sfa?
Since our 3-2 victory at Ibrox in March 2018,
Willie Collum has only received 7 Ibrox appointments in the league in over 6 YEARS.
Sunday will be the 6th league match,that John Beaton has been the referee at Ibrox in the last 11 MONTHS.
Only In Scotland.
* 7 Ibrox referee league appointments in over 6 YEARS.
we will have that thing and his buddy on var and golum to make up for his past misdeeds to sevco , the dice is fully loaded against CFC only a fool would say otherwise , if we are cheated we must make surethat the thing never officiates against us again , as suggested i would withdraw the team in protest rather than dignify that thing and his cronies if he unfairly rules against us , sunday is the var mans turn to make the balls , the thing will duly shrug his shoulders when he throws them !!
For over 65 years I have followed Celtic and watched a fair amount of so called honest mistakes, some I will never forget. Throughout the years we had a team that could overcome them in many games, by just scoring more goals than they could chalk off.
We failed to strengthen this year to enable us to overcome what we must have known was going to happen. This side is not up to the standard of many in the past so it makes it easy for the cheating given that many games are that bit tighter. The board has to carry the can for this as it seems the only way to beat them is to do it on the field of play and this takes more quality than we have at present. We really should be so much better and that is not knocking the current side.
Par for the course! Hammer these bastards beyond any possible help from the MIB! The players should be fully up to speed with the possibility of cheating against them and their club. Use all the positives and steam in! We can win this game without a shadow of a doubt!