Why you’d opt to be a ref is up for debate

AT least three of last weekend’s Scottish Cup ties – Hamilton v St Mirren, Dundee United v Partick Thistle and Dundee v St Johnstone – were affected by refereeing decisions.

This seems to be the norm in a number of matches now and judging by the reaction in England, I’m not sure VAR would improve matters.

In the late 19th century, there were no referees. Both teams brought an umpire and could appeal an incident to an independent adjudicator. That all changed in 1891 when the referee replaced the arbiter and umpires became linesmen.

Like most of my team-mates, I was occasionally asked if I’d thought of refereeing when playing days ended. The answer was a resounding ‘no’.

You have to put up with comments like the one by Alan Hardaker, the Football League secretary in 1964, that “referees should arrive by the back door and leave the same way”.

In 1971, Bill Shankly was quoted as saying: “The trouble with referees is they know the rules but they don’t know the game.”

Martin Buchan, in 1994, was annoyed about some decision affecting Manchester United when he said: “People say we have the best referees in the world. I shudder to think what the rest are like.”

Guido Tognoni, a spokesman for FIFA, was defending standards at the 1994 World Cup when he said: “The perfect referee does not exist. It’s one man against 90,000 people and 22 actors and a percentage of decisions will always be wrong.”

I believe the most relevant comment came in 2002 from the former Labour MP Roy Hattersley, by then Lord Hattersley, a Sheffield Wednesday supporter.

He said: “What makes a sane and rational person subject himself to such humiliation? Why on earth would anyone want to become a Premiership referee?”

There have not been that many debatable incidents in our league campaigns so far. Perhaps because only one of the four leagues has a few challengers going for top spot.

In League One, Falkirk are leading the way although Cove and Montrose are not too far behind.

I was broadcasting for Radio Clyde at Dens Park on the final day of season 1985-86, when Hearts only needed to avoid defeat to take the title. Unfortunately, they lost the match and that allowed Celtic to take the title at Love Street.

There were disappointed Hearts fans outside the ground and an angry woman approached me and said: “This is all your fault!”

I refrained from pointing out to her that I had retired in 1974.