With so much going on yesterday, I didn’t have the chance to catch up on some of the stories that caught my eye.
One of them is the tale about how our penalty kick the other night allegedly “divided opinion” on the VAR review panel. I’m not remotely surprised it caused debate. To me, it was a stonewall penalty—one of the easiest decisions officials will ever have to make. Almost every official or former official who’s looked at it agrees with that view. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s case closed.
Still, I’m not surprised in the slightest that it’s divided opinion on the panel or that there’s some lingering controversy in the media. Let’s face it—we’re not supposed to get decisions like that. We’re not supposed to be awarded penalties, even of the most obvious variety, especially not at critical points in a game.
There are people in Scottish football who resist change, particularly any change that creates a level playing field. Some can’t abide the idea of Celtic getting decisions on the same basis as the rest of the league. Equally, they resist holding Ibrox to the same standards as every other club. We all know this. It’s not speculation—it’s fact.
As I said in recent articles about the SFA and Scottish football refereeing—particularly the piece on the so-called conspiracy against Ibrox—it’s not a conspiracy against them. It’s a conspiracy to ensure fairness, to make sure all sides get a fair crack of the whip. And some people don’t like that idea at all.
Take that bubbling fool McCoist, for example, crying on about it the other day, saying his son knew there would be a penalty. What’s that even supposed to mean except that the whole family is as bitter as Daddy?
That’s exactly what I mean about controversy. It’s baked into some of these eejits. It’s part of their DNA, and as I’ve written before, and as we’ve discussed on this site, the makeup of the SFA VAR review committee is so warped and weird that it guarantees you’ll get a few of these morons in there.
Look at who they include on the panel—ex-players. If it’s the same ex-players the BBC employs, we know their biases all too well. Then you have journalists on there. Need I say more? We all know what some of those guys are like. These people are not there to give an impartial point of view. Some can’t see past their own biases and bigotry, and they don’t even try to hide it.
Even if the committee were packed with ex-officials, it would still be controversial because none of them is held accountable for their opinions in the way that they would be if they were actually making the decisions on the pitch.
But ex-officials at least know what they are talking about and a lot of them will stick to the letter-of-the-law. A lot of these ex pros and hacks don’t know the rules and regulations they are making judgements on, and so throwing in non-professionals, non-officials, people who judge decisions based on what they want to see or what they think their audiences might want is an absolute joke.
It’s time to stop pretending we’re operating in a fair and benign environment. We’re not, and everyone knows it. Some of these people are so bitter they can’t even see straight. Christ, for all we know it’s McCoist himself, sitting there with Billy Dodds, voting no.
This panel is a good thing, and it’s a good idea, but its composition is sketchy at best and we’ve no way of knowing who is making these calls.
It’s a good thing though that they have no force or effect.
Honestly, I wasn’t the least bit surprised that some people didn’t think it was a penalty. There are folk who’ll go to their graves believing Celtic should never have had a penalty in the entire history of football. That’s why I don’t give much weight to what the committee says. Just by virtue of how its members are selected, you’re bound to have at least a couple of these individuals in the room from time to time.
It was a clear penalty. A blatant handball. The guy’s arms were outstretched, and it couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d caught the ball and run off with it. That two out of five on the panel didn’t see it—or didn’t want to see it—would be shocking in most footballing contexts. You’d wonder how they could be so dumb.
But this is Scottish football. And here, it’s just business as usual.
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Their bitterness is etched on their faces. It’s eating away at them and shortening their life spans.
Oh dear. What a pity. Never mind.
Parity and fairness…we are now seeing by a bit more of this although we are all still deeply suspicious of Beaton et al!
This doesn’t sit well the Sevconites…as the sense of entitlement, bias and deception is still very strong amongst their brethren!
Let integrity and fairness continue to flow through Scottish football and hopefully wash away the decades of bias, dishonesty and cheating that we’ve all had to witness, as Celtic fans !
By the way, it was a complete stonewaller of a penalty!
No doubts whatsoever ( unless you are of a certain vintage !)
HH
Apologies, reposting this as predictive texting has removed a few key words earlier lol!
( I feel your pain James lol)
Parity and fairness…we are now seeing a bit more of this although we are all still deeply suspicious of Beaton et al!
This doesn’t sit well with the Sevconites…as the sense of entitlement, bias and deception is still very strong amongst their brethren!
Let integrity and fairness continue to flow through Scottish football and hopefully wash away the decades of bias, dishonesty and cheating that we’ve all had to endure & witness, as Celtic fans !
By the way, it was a complete stonewaller of a penalty!
No doubts whatsoever ( unless you are of a certain vintage !)
Is this the same DOBof a son who seriously injured someone in a car crash and the DOB of a father got him away with it your nothing but sevco hun scum aunt Sally, fcukin scum
Quite simply the panel members need to be publicly accountable (the same way that the Pools Panel members were known to us all). With time VAR always had the potential to be a force for good. Viral clips of biased decisions which go global with VAR were also going to be a disincentive to refs with an eye on a UEFA career.
Job done tonight – refuse to buy yet another TV subscription and reliant on radio updates. Maybe could have won more easily but at least avoided extra time. On only team can win the treble – HH
Get yourself an amazon fire stick Joe £40 roughly get someone to download it and bang all football, all PPV boxing the lot and give all the tv companies the middle finger HAIL HAIL MON THE HOOPS.
Yeah why have journalists on this panel when they practically all support Sevco and why former footballers when it’s refereeing decisions?
And why referees when they practically all support Sevco?
Jesus, Scotish football,media and refereeing really is an anti- Celtic cesspit which needs totally drained to ensure it can never become that way ever again.
The resistance is from the Sevco fans in these positions ,who see after decades of being so overtly and blatantly biased for Sevco and against Celtic that the Sevco refs can no longer be so overt.
Look for them being more creative since the brilliant 3 year long Alan Morrison expose of patterns of assistance..See flailing arms to Celtic players noses and other brutal attacks plus resorting to the tried and tested patterns of assistance used occasionally.
The same faces are still there as you importantly point out James,pissed off that they can’t get away with helping Sevco in the same ways so need to find new ways.But one things for sure with that mob still in charge they will find ways.
Yes you are correct Volp…whilst the current refereeing recruitment and regime is in place, they still move in dark and mysterious ways, and will find ways to disrupt our team whilst aiding Sevco!
We will always have these suspicions until a complete clearout, overhaul and honest dumping of these charlatans, takes place !
Where’s that scruffy bastard McCoist when ya need him…
WHO ARE THESE PEEPIL !