McDonald v Lennon

By FOS Editor
November 22 2010

Scottish football has finally gone mad to day, with referees going on strike and games possibly being cancelled at the weekend! How has it come to this....

It’s all kicked off today!!

This morning papers reported the referees for Scottish top flight games were going on strike after recent criticism by certain club(s), and the threats to themselves, their families, their homes and their workplaces from certain sections of fans!

This move is commendable but it would appear there is no statement from the referees to explain what they actually want to change. Therefore making it difficult to see how things can be resolved.

There has been loads of hot air spouted by the people who run the game but they seem to be in the dark to the real motives behind the strike action and how to end it.

They are claiming to have contingencies in place, including Irish and Welsh referees, although this could lead to further issues between the two sides and certainly won’t help resolve things.

We have stated on here in recent weeks that it was time for the manager’s to review what they said after games as recent comments were making refereeing some games impossible for the officials.

There was no way that they could give a decision without one side or another complaining about it.

Therefore it would be good to see a couple of things happen that would possibly help the situation;

1. Stop managers speaking about decisions immediately after games, give them time to cool down, review things on TV before giving their thoughts!
2. Let referee’s explain key decisions during games, although it is more than likely Willie Collum would have said he turned and saw Kirk Braodfoot tumble under a challenge and awarded Rangers a penalty in the Old Firm game! Would that have diffused the situation.

Something fundamental has to change or the game will be forever in danger of being the laughing stock of the rest of the football world.