TAKE HIM OUT OF FIRING LINE
Hartson feels Robertson should dodge Old Firm clash after penalty error
IF it was left to John Hartson, the SFA would already be conducting a quiet reshuffle, rearranging their team of officials for Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final clash between Celtic and Rangers.
Last weekend, Don Robertson blundered into the eye of a storm. Man in the middle for Ross County’s game with Celtic, the rising star of Scottish refereeing was one of the few within the confines of the Global Energy Stadium to miss an embarrassing dive by home striker Alex Schalk.
County’s Dutch forward was wheeled out yesterday to offer a public apology for the act of cheating which led to the hosts being awarded the equalising penalty in a 2-2 draw.
The SFA frown upon their referees offering a public mea culpa, but reports suggested that Robertson (below) planned to offer an apology to Brendan Rodgers by telephone.
His lingering discomfort won’t be helped by the SFA’s decision — reached before last weekend — to make him an additional assistant referee at Hampden on Sunday.
Officials behind the goals haven’t brought much to the party. They remain peripheral figures; their contribution minimal.
Amidst an atmosphere of fevered suspicion and conspiracy, however, Robertson’s every move will be closely scrutinised by Celtic and Rangers supporters alike.
And Hartson, speaking at the launch of his annual charity golf day, believes that’s unfair.
‘I think there’s too much pressure,’ said the former Celtic striker. ‘Too much pressure for him, personally.
‘I don’t know why he would want to do that. It’s a very delicate situation.
‘He’s obviously feeling very embarrassed. If he’s a realist and he’s honest, I personally would just say: “Look, leave me out of that one” if I was the referee or the assistant.’
Concerns over the SFA’s willingness to hold erring referees to account remain. Berating your top employees in public is a risky strategy, but when Andrew Dallas wrongly booked Malaury Martin of Hearts after two Motherwell players tripped over each other, his next appointment was a Rangers home game.
Hartson understands the SFA’s reluctance to embarrass Robertson publicly, but he feels referees could — and should — remove themselves from the front line after obvious blunders.
‘Take yourself out of the fray. Put somebody else in,’ he insisted.
‘Why aren’t the referees protecting him? Why stick him into that big game, Celtic-Rangers?
‘Take him out, let him go for lunch with his family on Sunday afternoon, give the guy a break.’
Amidst the scathing and justified criticism of Robertson — and the assistant referee who was better placed to spot Schalk’s simulation — lies another inescapable truth. Cheating players conning referees, some of whom are then unwisely making decisions based on guesswork, is becoming an issue in the Scottish game.
‘That decision at the weekend? I think the referee must have been unsighted and just listened to the sound of the crowd noise,’ said Hartson.
‘Otherwise, how can you possibly give that? He is the only man in that whole stadium who saw it that way.
‘He has guessed. If he has apologised to Brendan Rodgers, he has at least acknowledged he has made a mistake, which is something.
‘But all these conspiracy theories? I’ll leave that to the fans to decide on them.’ The idea of referees conspiring in darkened masonic halls is one many find difficult to take seriously. Hartson, himself, was the victim of controversy, most notably when an onside goal was flagged off in a 2-1 defeat to Rangers in the 2003 League Cup Final.
Admitting he has real sympathy for the plight of a refereeing fraternity crying out for video assistance, however, the former Welsh international was blunt. The life of a referee holds no appeal. ‘I’ve had two bad ones,’ he recalled.
‘I scored in my first game at Ibrox as well — onside.
‘There was also a League Cup Final against Rangers when I had a goal chalked off that was two yards onside.
‘I wouldn’t like to ref the game. Refereeing is the hardest thing to do because you’ve got a split-second.
‘The boys on the television — sometimes, we sit and watch it 50 times and still can’t decide.
‘The game now is so quick and the players are so fit and powerful.’
The appointment of Willie Collum as referee for Sunday’s second semi-final has done little to calm the air of fevered suspicion. Yet Collum had a fine game in Celtic’s 5-1 win at Parkhead in September.
‘Willie Collum is an experienced referee. He has done big games before,’ said Hartson. ‘Whoever does it is in the firing line. ‘Craig Thomson has made some big decisions in the past, which have been ludicrous, so they have to choose somebody.
‘I wouldn’t like to referee my boy’s Under-13s games because of the parents on the sidelines.
‘You need the thickest skin out of anybody, and a big ego!
‘You saw Brendan Rodgers last Sunday — one of the coolest men on the planet — absolutely infuriated by that decision.’
Unsurprisingly, Hartson expects Celtic to win at Hampden, but he also predicted a 4-0 win for his former club before last season’s semi ended in a Rangers triumph.
‘Rangers will feel this is the one where they have to stop Celtic,’ he said.
‘That is what all the thinking will be for Rangers: “This is the big game and we have to win this”.’
The teams meet for the final time a week later, in a league game at Ibrox.
With a glint in his eye, Hartson added: ‘That’s a nothing game now, isn’t it? Play the reserves. The league’s done.
‘Rangers are third. I actually thought they would get fourth.
‘If Pedro Caixinha gets them going they might finish third again next year because it’s going to take a while. There you go, there’s your headline...’
John Hartson was speaking at the John Hartson Foundation Golf Day. The Hartson Foundation is on course to raise £1million for charities.