STEPHEN McGOWAN: WHY TALK OF A REFS CONSPIRACY IS WIDE OF THE MARK
ONLY in Scotland would four Rangers penalties against St Mirren be cited as evidence of a subversive plot to destabilise Celtic. Tom Boyd, a Parkhead ambassador, wants neutral referees flown in from overseas to give his club a fair crack of the whip.
But consider this. Celtic have won the last seven domestic trophies they’ve contested. They look odds on to win an eighth straight title. Beat St Johnstone tomorrow and Brendan Rodgers will secure his 24th successive domestic cup victory, eclipsing the previous record set by Walter Smith’s Rangers between 1991/92 and 1993/94.
If referees really are engaged in a campaign to halt the trudge to ten-in-a-row, it’s the most cack-handed conspiracy since the Gunpowder Plot.
Anyone who knows Boyd will attest to the fact the former club captain is generally a sensible and stable type.
But he has no evidence to support the implication that cock-ups by referees are down to something more sinister than ‘honest mistakes’.
Amongst Celtic fans, those two words are now uttered with a heavy dose of sarcasm. On internet messageboards they come cased in quotation marks with a clear implication; the ‘honest mistakes’ are no such thing.
Some Twitter accounts exist purely to trawl through old penalty decisions, totting up the calumnies and splicing them together to add to the sense of persecution.
Listen, some of the decisions are ridiculous. But there are fans of every club in Scotland who could rattle off a list of hideous calls against their team.
And it’s quite the leap to go from acknowledging the limitations of referees to suggesting they deliberately subject themselves to public ridicule and abuse in a quest to stop Celtic.
Or imply, as Boyd does, they can’t be trusted to oversee football games in a neutral manner.
Instance an old Sky Sports report dredged up on social media this week.
The year was 1997. Rangers nine-in-a-row fever was approaching the status of a public epidemic. And, not for the first time that season, Celtic’s Portuguese striker Jorge Cadete was robbed of a legitimate goal by a dodgy offside call against Raith Rovers.
The footage caused some amusement around the Scottish
Daily Mail sports desk because the erring linesman was one Cameron Melville esq, now an esteemed sub-editor of these pages.
A former goalkeeper turned referee, anyone who has ever spent five minutes in Cammy’s company will tell you that he couldn’t have cared less who won the Premier League that season. A Morton man to his bootstraps, his horizons have never stretched any further than Cappielow.
Did he call the decision right that night? No, he didn’t.
Television pictures showed Cadete was onside and, at halftime, former Celtic boss Davie Hay told him so. But Cammy is a man who wouldn’t cheat his mother-in-law at tiddlywinks. There might be someone, somewhere less likely to spend his nights down the lodge figuring out a way to do in Celtic. To those of us who know him, it’s hard to think of one.
When he raised his flag that night it really was an honest mistake. And every week for the last 20 years a Celtic supporting acquaintance has refused to let him forget it.
That’s why the biggest loser at Ibrox last weekend wasn’t Celtic FC. Not even St Mirren. It was the referee, Andrew Dallas.
The son of UEFA referees’ officer Hugh, Dallas junior has been fast-tracked beyond his natural ability.
And all those influential friends in high places have bestowed on his shoulders is the notoriety which comes from awarding Rangers four penalties in one game.
His honesty and character will be ripped to shreds by supporters who don’t know him. From now on, a Google search of his name will return three pages of results based around one football match. The SFA, meanwhile, are under pressure to demote him.
Is all that really worth it to help out one football team?
Not for me, thanks. Referees really aren’t so different to the rest of us. They want praise and pats on the back for doing a decent job.
They can’t help the fact they grew up supporting a football team. And the damage caused to their personal reputation and integrity by showing bias towards that team in a professional capacity simply isn’t worth it. No one of sane mind would want the grief.
Talk of Scottish referees being corrupt or dodgy, then, is wild and conspiratorial. They are decent men doing their best. The great regret is that their best simply isn’t good enough.