Club is fined £6,000 for referee criticism

Rangers have been fined a total of £6,000 over their criticism of referee Willie Collum.

The club was found to have breached two Scottish Football Association disciplinary rules following a Hampden hearing. Another two charges were not proven and a fifth was withdrawn.

Rangers lodged a formal complaint against Collum and publicly criticised him after failing to overturn a second yellow card for Daniel Candeias following a victory over St Mirren last month.

Rangers received a £5,000 fine for criticising a match official in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence, or make remarks which impinge on his character. The rest of the punishment was for not acting in the “best interests of association football”.

The other charges related to bringing the game into disrepute and sportsmanship and acting towards the SFA with good faith.

Rangers submitted an appeal against the yellow card after their win in Paisley on November 3 under one of the two premises allowed – that of mistaken identity – after Candeias appeared to do nothing untoward during a clash with Anton Ferdinand.

After losing their case, Rangers stated it “defied belief” that Collum had been handed one of the biggest matches in Scottish football that weekend – Aberdeen versus Hibernian – while Candeias was suspended.

An official statement added: “Furthermore, it is understood that a number of people within the Scottish FA are in no doubt Mr Collum’s judgement was flawed and Rangers shall also now be submitting a formal complaint about the performance of this referee.

“The manner in which he reacted to an incident involving our player made it obvious he did not give due consideration to his decision.

“This is by no means the first time errors of judgement have been made in matches involving this official and clearly there is an underlying issue which requires to be addressed.”

It later emerged that Candeias had been booked partly for “making gestures” towards the St Mirren defender seconds earlier after his side scored to make it 2-0.

Rangers confirmed soon after the written reasons for their appeal failure were published that they had issued a formal complaint against Collum.

Speaking hours after the verdict, Ferdinand claimed there was no need for Candeias to “gloat”.

When asked about the incident at his team’s pre-match media conference, the defender said: “I didn’t take kindly to what he was doing.

“They won the game fair and square, there was no need to gloat. Be professional, win a game and be right in winning just as you have to be when you’re losing.

“When you’re winning a game of football, is there any reason to incite players? There isn’t.”

Picture: SNS. Rangers were vocally critical of Willie Collum.