By Curve Ball
September 23 2002

Curve Balls Sunday Opinion this time highlighting the standard of refereeing in the Scottish Premier League and how biased the referees can be to the old firm.

Men In Black

I’m deliberately writing this before the Dundee V Celtic game on Sunday in order that no-one can allege sour grapes on my part should a contentious decision be made, or not, as the case may be, by tomorrows referee. In fact I don’t even know who we’ve got for the ref other than it is not Weelee Jung. Of course, Weelee’s standing with the Dundee fans is at such a low ebb that had he been appointed for the game, it would have been unavoidable common knowledge by now. Poor man. All that abuse for £400 a game.

Some years ago I asked an English fan for his opinion on what was the biggest difference between Scottish and English football. “The standard of refereeing,” came his immediate reply, ‘they wouldn’t get away with that down South.” Now I thought that was interesting. Think of all the answers he could have given, better players, bigger crowds, more money, superb stadia……….. yet he chose our very own Men in Black as the big difference. In fairness, I don’t think Weelee was running games at that time, at least not Dundee games, so we can’t blame him for the views of my English mate. Nevertheless, his answer points towards a problem in the Scottish game that has been allowed to fester for far too many years. In my view, this problem has two aspects. The first is incompetent refereeing in general. The second relates to those games where the Old Firm play other teams and the decision-making of the officials has been consistently pro-Old Firm.

On the first aspect of the problem, it is fair to say that there have been a number of comments made in the press and on TV over the years. Wrongly, in my view, individual cases have been highlighted as examples. For example, the non-penalty in the Dunfermline V Airdrie League Cup semi-final some years ago or the ‘goal that wasn’t’ in a Partick V United game at Firhill. When presented with isolated examples, the SFA have gone for the ‘it’s a one-off’ excuse or played the old ‘who would be a referee’ line citing unruly behaviour by players as a cause of bad decisions being made. What a load of bollux. These apparently highly-trained individuals have two pro-active assistants to aid them, a fourth official on the sidelines and a supervisor in the stand. In addition, their word is law. They have total authority on the pitch. Yet still their performance is abysmally inconsistent and no-one in the media has found it necessary to stand up and present a collective case of their ineptness.

The second aspect is more sinister but the evidence is as plain to see as the examples offered above on incompetent refereeing. It must also be said that on this matter, the Scottish sports press have done even less to publicise the situation. Here’s an unbiased example. In 1982 United were going for three league cups on the trot. Their opponents were Rangers and the game was played at ‘neutral’ Hampden Park. United took the lead and were outplaying Rangers when they had a goal chalked off for offside. This was the situation. John Holt had been brought down and was lying at approximately the penalty spot when Sturrock hit a 22-25 yarder in to the top right-hand corner. Although clearly not interfering with play the ref called it offside! Rejuvenated, Rangers took heart and scored two late goals to win. That example was from 20 years ago, here’s one from last week. Rangers at Livingston, 0-0 at half-time with Livi looking good for a point. During the 2^nd half the ref sends off a Livi player for a second yellow giving Rangers an immediate advantage which they use to score. He later gives them a penalty which they convert to seal the win. However, during the game, the referee, his two assistants and the fourth official ALL missed the Rangers player Kevin Muscat blatantly elbowing an opponent. Also, the ref took no action after a particularly heavy tackle by the Rangers player Craig Moore………….. yet he managed to see both offences by the Livi player!

Anybody think I’m on an anti-OF trip? This is the CB test of fairness in these situations. Turn it around. If Muscat had been a Livi player, would he have walked? If Moore had been a Livi player, would he have been booked? Would the Livi player who was sent-off have been given a second yellow if he had been playing for Rangers? Would he have even been given a first yellow?

Answers on a postcard to:

SFA referee committee,

Never-never land,

Glasgow

SW1

P.S. Bear the above in mind on Sunday. Apply the CB test of fairness and reverse the situation if the ref makes a contentious decision……….. in fact, if Dundee take the lead, make that ANY decision!!

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