Nine years on bosses still talk about the standards of referees

McDonald decided on a proposal for a withdrawal of services?”

Recalling the mood at the time Richmond, who retired in 2012, told Record Sport: “It was all to do with one referee and certain comments at a certain game, he was circling the wagons to try and get people to side with him.

“But I would say there was nothing over and above what was probably normal comments.

“Was he right to go down the avenues he did rather than other means?

“I think the other younger inexperienced guys had maybe been toed along a wee bit reluctantly rather than sitting down and asking what is the whole concept and how do we all feel.”

The SFA were forced into a mad scramble across Europe to round up as many foreign refs as possible to fulfil fixtures.

In total 11 games were to go ahead with a further nine postponed due to insufficient numbers of officials.

But the strike lost its impact when the weather decided to get involved too and a whiteout saw a further seven games called off for snow and frozen pitches.

Officials from Malta, Israel, Luxembourg and Portugal were brought in.

But the appointments were thrown into further confusion when the Portuguese contingent returned home immediately after arriving at Glasgow Airport.

They claimed they had been sold the idea under false pretences and were under the impression they were heading to Scotland as part of an exchange programme, claims denied by the SFA chiefs.

It was a mess with only matches between Celtic and Inverness, Hamilton and St Mirren, Hibernian and St Johnstone and Kilmarnock and Aberdeen going ahead.

Asked if the strike had the desired affect, Richmond said: “In hindsight probably not.

“A lot of games were lost to the weather rather than to the fact that there were no referees available. “A few games went ahead with the same ref doing a game on the Saturday and then the Sunday.

“Was it beneficial to hammer home the message at the time? Probably not.

“It would have been different if it had been March or April time when you are not losing as many games to the weather.

“Across the board we had said if we got one game postponed then it would be an impact, so then I suppose you could say it had some effect.

“Certainly the statement aspect had the desired affect of ‘Oh my God the refs are going to withdraw their services’.” Richmond says little has changed in terms of communication between club officials and refs.

He reckons the best thing for all parties would be for referees to come out and explain decisions after games.

He added: “You need to understand the role of a referee and what he is there to do and the role of a manager and what he is there to do.

“What we need to see is a bit more in the wider education of things. It might be down to coming out and explaining why we gave decisions and the laws of the game.

“Some refs would welcome it and some wouldn’t but in my opinion that’s the road we need to go down.”

CHARLIE RICHMOND ON IMPACT THAT STRIKE HAD