Before every one of these games, we talk about the officials, the potential impact they might have, and what might unfold. The outside world doesn’t care at all. The media doesn’t care. The Ibrox fans think we’re paranoid fools. Yet, after every one of these games, everyone suddenly wants to talk about the officials. And then, oddly, we sound like the sanest people in the room, while everyone else starts to go off the rails.
Here’s the basic fact of it as I see it: the officials had no bearing whatsoever on yesterday’s outcome. Beaton booked eight of their players, awarded them the notorious free kick, and VAR didn’t intervene to overturn his decision. We made a number of key mistakes which aided their first two goals, but that game was largely about us in control of the ball and trying to find a way to turn it into silverware. We managed it.
Yet, the media still wants to whinge and wail on behalf of the Ibrox club. They’re going to have to come up with an explanation—even if it’s the outright incompetence of the officials—for why the litany of “bad decisions” against them happened.
Clement said he hoped the media would dig into it. So do I. Because if they dig, the implication is there’s something to find. Maybe we’ll discover Beaton is a secret Celtic fan. That would genuinely make me laugh if it turned out to be true. But I have a feeling it would also change the tone of the conversation about him as a referee.
Dig deep, I say. Dig as deep as you want.
In the end, you’re not going to find a pot of gold.
You’re only going to confirm what we already know: Beaton isn’t one of us. He’s one of their own, and that brings its own set of problems.
Do people seriously not believe us when we say we don’t want Celtic fans refereeing these games any more than we want fans of the club across the city doing it?
Why do they think that is? Why don’t we want our fans—or theirs—officiating these matches? First, because you can’t trust people to remain impartial in those circumstances, and I don’t want to win a game that way. Second, as we’ve seen with ex-Celtic players in the media, some people go overboard when it comes to dealing with their own club.
These individuals often try so hard to appear unbiased that they become hypercritical. They go further than any neutral would because they don’t want to be accused of favouritism. If there are Celtic-supporting officials out there, you can bet they’d be the ones hardest on our club, handing out harsh decisions to prove they’re impartial. And they do it because they know their colleagues are well aware of their allegiances, so they go out of their way to overcompensate.
So let them investigate. Let them figure out where everyone’s loyalties lie. In the end, it doesn’t matter. It only reinforces our long-standing argument: no official with any allegiance—either way—should be involved in these games.
We already know what Beaton is. We’ve highlighted it repeatedly. If the Ibrox counter-argument is that we’ve put pressure on him by pointing it out, then my question is this: is he fit to officiate these games if he can be swayed by what people write on blogs or post on social media? The pressure comes from every direction, and it’s unavoidable in these circumstances, and we’re not the ones who put him in the firing line; the lack of regulations on this stuff is what has made John Beaton fair game. If those regulations existed he wouldn’t have been out on the pitch.
If people want to join us in calling for officials to declare their allegiances, then great—welcome aboard. We’ve been saying this for a long time. It’s good to finally have some support, and maybe now we can have a proper national discussion about it.
A discussion that actually leads to changes, one that factors in bias as much as incompetence or whatever it is they think they saw yesterday. See, until they come out and tell us what they think happened I’m not interested in the whining. I want to hear their explanation, and then we can see if we’re on the same page when it comes to finding answers.
If their argument is basic incompetence, then let’s have a discussion about whether games of this magnitude should be officiated by the SFA at all. Because if Beaton is the best they’ve got then they’re in a lot of trouble.
If they aren’t prepared to go that far, then they should stop complaining. I see commentators predicting this debate will drag on for days. Excellent. Let it drag on. Let it last weeks, until we win at Ibrox and they find something else to moan about.
This isn’t the first time all the focus has been on a decision that went Celtic’s way. It happens all the time now, especially in these games, because the losing side—which is always them—is constantly looking for excuses for why they didn’t win.
I’d call it pathetic if it weren’t so helpful for Celtic.
This cycle of finger-pointing and blame-shifting locks them into a state of permanent denial. Instead of fixing the problems inside their own walls—which they never seem to get around to—they keep externalising the blame.
And there’s no sign they’re about to change.
They’re convinced there’s no gap. They’re convinced they proved something yesterday. They’re convinced they should have won the game with 33% possession. As usual, they’ll learn no lessons, and their problems will continue to fester.
And that suits us just fine.
What is harder to take is a media that allows bad officiating to happen every week until decisions favour Celtic, and then they all want to focus on “the problem” without ever having the guts to ask what the problem actually is, and to call for the changes needed to fix it.
This whole thing is just another pathetic charade.
As we know, and were told regularly down the seasons, these decisions even themselves out.
Absolutely spot on mate. And if beaton has decided he would rather put his ‘professionalism’, before his allegiances, then he’s doin himself a big favor. Questions right enough, on how he booked 8 of them and there were ‘bookable’ fouls by some of these same players afterwards, with no further action. And Clemmont, whit is it with this guy ??! And of ALL the people to say, the media like tae ‘dig deep’ ! The absolute master of statistic bullshittin himself, askin them tae ‘dig deep’ with this. Ok, if theyre that desperate, let’s say, even if they had been awarded the penalty, they still had tae score the fuckin thing. Nae guarantees there. Even if they had, that doesn’t mean they would have definitely went on tae win. There was still good time, if they had, for Celtic tae get back in it and who’s tae say they wouldn’t have !? All surmise and hypothetical. Fact is nobody knows ! Ye lost………again !! So crawl back intae your despair phillipe and geez aw peace.
It’s no coincidence that Beaton, in particular, has wound himself back from the blatant cheating he used to indulge in, since Celtic turned up with a K.C. at Brendan’s disciplinary hearing following his criticism of the compromised whistler.
The story was that a significant shot was fired across the SFA bows with a promise that there would be more to follow should similar circumstances reoccur.
Beaton still gives the huns the benefit of the doubt but has perhaps put his career before his allegiances as stated previously.
Maybe Lord Lucan-Nicholson is more of a quiet assassin than we think…
Doubt it though as it Brendan that steadfastly sticks up for us in public anyway –
Looking forward to Clyde Superscoreboard tonight…
But it’ll just be Deflect – Deflect – Deflect –
I’ll just think of Celtic’s opening goal if it is !
The game had a couple of incidents that the referee had to make possibly game changing decisions. First, the possible penalty. I thought the foul start happened before the player stepped on the line. I thought it was the correct call, as the foul spot happens at the start point of the foul not through continuation or the position end.
The other one for me is the possible red card for accumulation of fouls on Leon Balugin (sp). Just before he was changed out , he committed a foul that could have, should have? sent him off. However, as a fan of what was a great game, I’m glad he stayed on, because I wanted the match to be decided on football quality, not on borderline incidents. Cheers!
Went on followfollow to soak up some Sevco pain last night WOW I’m psychologically scarred for life. It’s hard to believe these people are allowed out without medical supervision. The levels of deludamol and hopeium was quite astounding, paired with the hatred and total lack of self awareness, its quite a mix.
But to your point about officials, Beaton was getting quite an easy ride, considering, their vitriol was reserved for Alan Muir. That’s where the water(probably Spanish bog water) turned dark and dangerous!! One mastermind zombie posted “I used live next door to Muir” ……Well done mate, that was genius!?! That was the cue for the kinda replies you’d expect from them. The one that’s still in my head just now was along the lines of “Doesn’t need his windows panned in or his car torched just a chat!?! “ paraphrasing that bit but you get gist..What is actually wrong with these people? ! I have no personal feelings one way or the other about the guy I don’t know him but we all know what he is. But to endanger any guy with a family because your team didn’t win a game of football goes beyond the pale. That forum is an absolute cesspit and it’s quite depressing when you know that these “peepul” walk amongst us. The quicker they implode again the better for Scottish football.
Having said that the tears were delicious.
I think we should distribute the message that Beaton is a jump the dyke, man that would be soooo funny, photoshop him in Celtic pubs, Smiling after Celtic goals, in the chapel.
Out at Grace’s with Blobby Madhun….. LMAO
Point is when the final whistle blows you take the result and move on, cannot do anything about it. Do they want a decision change to give them the silverware? A rematch ’til they win one?
Contentious issues are what gives football variables that can go for or against you. We have to accept it is not a perfect sport, wouldn’t want it to be but generally most deserving team should win most of the time.
Shout out to Brendan’s record versus the buns… Totally awesome.
New contract on the table for the best Goalie we have had since Holy Goalie #2. That would be an awesome Xmas gift for us Jungle Jim’s. HH
Everyone talks about the officials after the Glasgow Derby – We’re all doing it on here now!
I’m sitting listening to these clowns on SSB on Clyde, The huns on the phone are going crazy. For my sins I listened for 40 mins then had to switch it off, one Celtic supporter phoned in and explained very well that the whistle had probably gone before Cerny’s foot or jersey were in the box, the guy said he had been a referee and if the foul had been awarded before any part of Cerny’s body was in the box then Beaton hadn’t made a mistake. The anchor guy Gordon Duncan, who to be fair is usually quite measured, argued that he was wrong. As a guy who refereed at youth and amateur level in the 70’s and 80’s, then unless the rule has changed, which I very much doubt, when the whistle is blown the game stops.
I’m pretty sure that this will be the explanation given by Willie Collum, There was an incident in the early round of this Cup, when Rangers played St Johnstone and some controversy about whether the whistle had been blown before The Rangers scored their 1st goal, the St Johnstone players stopped whilst The Rangers player Dessers played on and scored. There were no complaints from the Ibrox mob that night.
The point you make is correct James, but there is no chance of getting agreement with the board over at Ibrox to bring in Foreign referees, although you never know they’re daft enough to bite the hand that’s fed them dodgy decisions for well over a century.
Jeez – Clyde Superscoreboard are definitely going mad about ‘Penalty’ gate for sure…
Especially The ‘Motherwell’ fan that’s hosting it –
Mostly Huns on and mostly about the ‘Penalty’ That never was…
Watched it on iPad tonight and initial contact was OUTSIDE the box and he threw himself into it…
Well done the Celtic supporter from Falkirk that really embarrassed the host by saying to him “Did you hear if there was any conversation between Muir and Beaton” which he was obviously unable to answer…
Cue a Statement O’clock from Sevco demanding the audio any time soon !
It was terrific to win. We didnt play well but we won again. Been watching Celtic since the 60s…. We have seen a sea change in refereeing decisions in the last 60 years. Its not perfect but that was clearly a penalty y-day for them in extra time. We were lucky there. Also in the a very recent League Cup final we won 1-0 when Jullian scored that was also offside. So while I would never say referees our in our favour. Those two decisions were wrong and did benefit us. I reckon 50 years ago both of those decisions would have gone against us. The scrutiny of VAR and TV is helping to even this out. I was actually at Ibrox on the Cadete night it was a disgrace. And I have seen so many others. I was there when Bobby Davidson gave Aberdeen a ridiculous penalty in 1970 too. So they do have a right to moan as that was a penalty y-day and I want us to focus on how we keep on winning. We do need to make a few more squad additions. We really missed Johnston y-day when he wnet off for example.
Difficult to say too much about the non penalty without knowing what happened. My suspicion is wither the foul was given for the leg challenge, or he played advantage for that then had to bring it back. Suspect knowing the audio would be made public prevented the VAR fudge that would’ve given the penalty. If he gave it for the shirt pull then he got it wrong and should have been a penalty (even though it was cynically throwing a foot towards the box to hope for a penalty by the Hun who was already on his way down outside the box).
Not actually the worst decision of the game though, and pre VAR nobody would have talked about it much.
The tackle on Kuhn by Balogun was a red card, not a yellow. VAR seemingly didn’t even review. Balogun then had a further 6 fouls, 1 of which was a clear SPA and then the one just before he was subbed which was also a bookable tackle. So the team missed 3 chances to send him off. At least. There were some pretty constant SPA fouls by the Huns, and a few instances of delaying the restart by kicking the ball away or failing to respect the distance. All unpunished. And of course there was the usual imbalance between what’s a foul depending on who tackles. The yellow for CCV was an absolutely outrageous decision, just guesswork from Beaton.
OK just suppose it was a penalty, does that mean that every time a jersey is pulled it is a booking, and if in the penalty box it is a penalty, that means there will be numerous penalties awarded in just about every game.
Take a note of the jersey pulling at every corner. It goes on all the time. Just because the huns got beat, it is the only thing the media can go on about. Not once in the media has it been mentioned about sevco’s eight bookings.