Blundering Collum is not biased... he’s just hopeless

IF EVERY club put out a statement when Willie Collum had a howler the internet would break. This week, Rangers came out slamming Scotland’s most error-prone referee, seeking a review of SFA disciplinary procedures and branding last Saturday’s dismissal of Daniel Candeias ‘inexplicable’. It’s hard to find fault with their frustration. Collum (left) sails through mistake after mistake and still you couldn’t mark him with a blowtorch. The big games keep coming. But for an injury on Champions League duty during the week, he’d have been in charge of Aberdeen’s match against Hibs last night just days after he showed a laughable red card to Candeias in Paisley last weekend. Under current rules, the only grounds for Rangers to appeal the winger’s baffling second yellow card are simulation or mistaken identity. Neither applied here, of course. In the hope the SFA would see sense, Rangers tried the mistaken identity argument anyway. It didn’t work. With Candeias now suspended for tomorrow’s game against Motherwell, the Ibrox club want a ‘fundamental review’ of the rules to allow players sent off for a ridiculous second yellow card to appeal. But here’s the thing. Bad bookings happen all the time. Should a player who receives one dubious yellow card in a game have to accept his fate while Candeias has his expunged because it led to a red? The SFA could allow clubs to appeal all yellow cards, but that’s no use to lowerleague teams. There is little or no video evidence of their miscarriages of justice. Why should they be unable to appeal a booking when Rangers, Celtic or Hearts can do so at will? The whole concept is well intentioned, yet ultimately flawed. Ideally, clubs would find the cash to bring in VAR and give erring referees a helping hand. But there’s no evidence that’s in the pipeline yet. Neither is there the slightest sign of the SFA refereeing department losing faith in Collum. While players like Candeias sit games out, Oor Willie blunders on blithely guessing at the big decisions. But spare us the implication that he’s worse for Rangers than he is for anyone else. Like most Scottish referees, Collum is not biased — he’s hopeless. And he’s not just hopeless for Rangers. He’s hopeless for everyone.