The media’s hypocrisy on the Hampden penalty call is disgusting and Celtic fans know it.

Last night, someone sent me an extraordinary piece of footage, and I have to admit that I was surprised watching it—so surprised because I completely missed it during the game and in the repeat viewings afterwards. It shows Cameron Carter-Vickers being held by an Ibrox player during the moment that leads to their second goal.

Our centre-back could conceivably have gotten to that ball before it went into the net. He’s being restrained. That’s an infringement, which means it’s a free kick, which means it’s not a goal.

Look, I personally don’t care. I missed the incident at the time, and I’m not going to get steamed up about it now in the aftermath.

What I do care about is that when you see it, it’s fairly blatant, and yet nobody in the mainstream media wants to talk about it.

Nobody wants to ask why VAR didn’t intervene, why the referee didn’t see it, or why the goal wasn’t overturned. They have their little narrative that it was the Ibrox club that was hard done by here, and they’re sticking to it.

It is incredibly hard to take these people seriously when they’re in this sort of foot-stamping mood. It’s even harder to take them seriously when you look at their long history of not wanting to discuss officiating at all, and especially not the performances of individual referees.

If dark forces are pulling the strings—as the rambling Village Idiot seemed to suggest in his incredible on-camera meltdown—and there was some conspiracy at work to deny Ibrox their due in that match, I can only wonder why those involved didn’t intercede to chop off the second goal.

The chance was there. There’s something in that footage that would have justified such an intervention had they decided to make it. It wouldn’t even have been a particularly controversial moment. But these “Celtic fans” or whatever certain people want to call them, chose in that moment to do the club they’re allegedly serving a huge disservice and grant the side they’re supposedly screwing over an advantage.

Maybe it’s just me who finds that a little hard to comprehend.

And so, I ask again, as I have before—what exactly do these people want?

If the SFA has admitted that its officials made an error, what does the media want to see happen? Demotions for all involved? Presumably including John Beaton?

He just keeps on skating through, doesn’t he?

Last night, my attention was drawn to another of his outrageous “misses” when footage of a Connor Goldson rugby tackle on Duk from May last year was trending on social media; looking at that incident, it’s a far more obvious penalty than the one at the weekend. Not only did Beaton not give it, but nor did the VAR officials. The media didn’t turn it into a week long inquest, not even coming, as it did, in a spell where the Ibrox club had gone more than 50 league games without conceding a spot kick.

What happened to the officials that day? Were they demoted? Why has this never happened before? We’ve all seen cases where officials have made “mistakes.” Has anyone ever seriously paid for one of them?

Or maybe the media wants more. Are we to presume they’re like the guy on Clyde the other night demanding a replay of the match?

Do they want the SFA to write a compensation cheque to Ibrox? Are they alleging mere incompetence, or are they, as Boyd seems to be, suggesting something darker? And if it’s the latter, shouldn’t they just say it outright so we can have a proper conversation?

Because here’s the thing: I want that conversation, and I know you do too.

We’ve been asking for it for years.

If this is the moment to finally get it—if it takes a decision in Celtic’s favour to bring us to that point—then that’s even better, isn’t it? We can celebrate that alongside smashing The Survival Lie to pieces and overtaking their alleged trophy count.

Apparently, the governing bodies are holding a media event today, unrelated to this incident. But the hacks can’t wait to get Mike Mulraney and Ian Maxwell in front of them so that they can demand answers.

And what if the answers are, “Yeah, we made a mistake”? What then? Is that to be regarded as the end of the matter, or are we going to see some blood on the walls? And if we do, it’ll be one of the first times we ever have.

Never mind that this is below their pay grade; those two guys will get grilled today as if they’d been caught with their hands in the till.

Maybe they should go on the offensive.

Instead of letting the hacks rip into them, they should stand there and say, “If you think the standards are bad, what do you propose we do about it? If you think there’s an issue with our officials, what issue do you think we have, and how do you suggest we handle it?” I’ll tell you this: nothing would silence these people faster than that.

Are Scottish officiating standards poor? Absolutely. Do fans, clubs, and the public trust Scottish officials? Absolutely not. Is there widespread concern about how certain clubs are officiated? Without question. Is any of this up for debate? No. It’s all known, understood, and undeniable.

But why does it take something like this—a decision in Celtic’s favour—for all the nuts to come out of the nut hatch? Mike McCurry, for God’s sake?

Why does it take this before all the ex-officials with known Ibrox leanings are suddenly screaming that “this would never have happened in their day”? They’re practically echoing the exact lines I wrote in that spoof piece earlier this month.

And so now, suddenly, people are interested in the debate?

Except … no, they really aren’t.

They don’t actually want a debate. They want to help Ibrox deflect attention from their own failures and promote another hard-luck story over there. Hey, whatever helps them sleep at night. Nobody, though, is genuinely interested in discussing refereeing standards or whether referees should declare their allegiances.

Instead, we’re getting a full parade of goons, stamping their feet and treating this like a conspiracy or a cover-up. Is it? The Collum VAR show finds at least one “mistake” to highlight every month. So why is this different?

Let me say it again: the one allegation that cannot be levelled at us is that we are inconsistent on this subject. We are perfectly consistent. We didn’t want Beaton refereeing before the game, and we don’t want him refereeing another of our matches after it. The VAR officials? I couldn’t care less what their perceived allegiances are, but I would prefer that those allegiances were known so we could exclude certain people from officiating games involving us or the Ibrox club ever again.

It is farcical—and disgraceful—that John Beaton was ever allowed to officiate that match. And it is God’s little joke that he and his officials may have botched such a big moment to our benefit. Nobody here could care less whether it’s a penalty or not, whether it should have been given, or whether it was right not to give it. That’s not what’s important.

What’s important is that whatever Scottish football is doing with these officials is not working. It’s not helping our game. It’s making matters worse. Some of these guys might be biased; some of them might just be incompetent. But we’re tolerating it either way. And if it is bias, there’s a very simple way to solve that problem, and for some reason, we won’t take it.

I’m going to outline my thinking on this just so we’re clear and on the record. Just so everyone knows exactly where I’m coming from—and I think we’re all coming from the same place.

If that decision is a free kick outside the box because Beaton blew the whistle early—because he couldn’t wait to give it, as Joe McHugh suggested last night on our podcast—then there’s nothing to see here. And the media reaction to this has been hysterical and embarrassing because they simply presume that Ibrox has a case. They simply presume that there’s more to this than meets the eye, which makes them as unhinged as the craziest conspiracy theorist.

As I said before the game—and as I repeated last night—I don’t care how well Beaton officiates our games. I couldn’t care less if he’d had the perfect performance on Sunday. He should never have been allowed to officiate the match in the first place. That’s what I care about, and that’s the bottom line.

But say we discover that is a penalty after all, that Beaton should have gotten help from his VAR officials and that they didn’t come to his aid. Well, my view is that those guys should be taken off the line for a month for botching a decision in a major game. And I think that should be the standard from here on in.

I’ll go even further: let’s say we find out that there was cheating involved here. In those circumstances, those officials should be banned permanently from ever officiating at any level in the game again. But if that’s the case, are we still going to pretend this is a conversation we shouldn’t have? Are we still going to pretend that all referees are men of honour and integrity, and that we can’t even dare ask the question?

If this is, in fact, the first major scandal we’ve uncovered since Hugh Dallas and his sectarian email, are we just going to pretend that it’s not important? Are we going to pretend we don’t have a real problem here and that there’s not something we should do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?

Because this is where the inconsistency of the mainstream media—and all the SFA apologists and lackeys who’ve defended the integrity of officials for years without question—falls down on its backside. Our line remains consistent and strong: we don’t want the possibility that officials act corruptly, dishonestly, or with bias. And we don’t care whose side they’re on.

The rule changes we’ve proposed consistently do not benefit one team but all teams. They don’t give us an advantage. They’re about eliminating the possibility of an unfair disadvantage—not just for us, but for everyone in the game.

And if Scottish football is finally ready and willing to have that discussion, then we welcome the rest of them to it and as we do, I don’t think it’s too much to hope for some acknowledgement of where we’ve been this whole time.

Last night we put up our third podcast, Joyful & Triumphant. Please share it on social media friends.