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John Hartson: I'm sorry there could be a conspiracy

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John Hartson fears that there IS a conspiracy against Celtic from Scottish referees.

Speaking candidly in his column in The Sun today the Welsh striker admits that he tried to dismiss the conspiracy theory throughout his five years as a Celtic player.

Willie Collum’s decision to award Rangers a penalty last week has forced Hartson into a rethink after years of dismissing the notion.

“Now I fear that there is a conspiracy against my old club,” he admits in today’s paper. “How else can anyone explain Willie Collum’s penalty decision in the Old Firm match?

“What rankles with me is that Collum just didn’t see the incident. His back was turned and he had absolutely no idea what was going on in the box.

“If he had a clear view of the flashpoint and pointed to the spot that would have been a different matter.

“Celtic fans might not have liked the decision but we could all have put it down to human error. After all it’s not the first time that Celts have been on the wrong end of an honest blunder in an Old Firm derby.

“Anyone remember the two stonewall spot-kicks Craig Thomson turned down last season and his subsequent apology?

“Now it’s my turn to say sorry for all the years that I laughed at the punters who shouted about a conspiracy because unless Collum quickly explains why he pointed to the spot I can see their point.

“How Collum can go out and referee another top flight match until he gives an answer is beyond me.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was totally embarassing and has made a mockery out of two great clubs. It is the worst decision I have seen in my life.

“This incredible decision has deeply effected me over the last week and made me think so hard about all the conspiracy theories I’ve heard over the years.

“Horror decisions like Collum’s spot-kick call can’t be tolerated and unless there is a clear answer to Celtic’s questions I’m afraid that the conspiracy theorists might be right.”

Did Dougie Dougie lie to the Celtic manager?

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0 comments

  • Patman says:

    Tell it like it is John. Love John’s book hail hail

  • Joe says:

    It’s about time these ex players stood up and told it like it really is.

    Good on you big John Hartson. We all know it is a fact. Now, not only does McDonald look like a low life, but what about Dallas?

    He stood up and said he was satisfied about the decision, it was the right call and that once Craven had drawn the attention of McDonald, to quash the original call, he was also satisfied that Craven did the right thing.

    Then, their little conspirators world fell in. Craven told the truth. Now if Dallas had even talked with Craven he would not have said what he did or he too was going to be proven a liar.

    Now, he is exposed as just that. Like McDonald, he is a liar and a bigot. Whether or not it was a penalty was never the issue.

    Kenny Clark even spoke up and said Celtic were nuts to suggest there is a bias against them!! Really Mr. Clark? You also just proved yourself a liar and a cheat.

    Would Dallas, Clark, Dougal, Thompson and McDonald just tell us all one thing. Just this one. When was the last time Rangers were on the wrong side of a refs “honest” mistake or dodgy decision which caused them to drop points in important Old Firm games?

    Full marks to Graham Poll, the retired ref from the EPL who said McDonald bottled it, was influenced by player power, and of course, got it wrong in the end.

    McDonald should have been fired, as should Dallas- he lied every bit as much to attempt a cover up.

  • Hugh Macfarlane says:

    I don’t know if there is a conspiracy but as far as I am concerned the SFA have questions to answer about this appointment.

    Why did they appoint the inexperienced Willie Collum and not one of the referees with Old Firm experience such as Callum Murray, Dougie McDonald or Craig Thomson? With the recent form of the teams so close, the referee appointment mattered.

    Neil Lennon’s 16 match winning run meant he had a better win record than Rangers with the established referees. Could Collum have been brought in to put pressure on Celtic because Celtic had lost two of the last four with him, including the Scottish Cup semi-final against Ross County, Neil Lennon’s only previous domestic defeat?

    Also Rangers must have got a boost from seeing a referee on the park that they had already won nine in a row with. Rangers had won the last nine games he had refereed for them and had not failed to win in two years when Willie Collum was the referee. It is a record that no other referee currently on the SFA list can match.

  • Joe McHugh says:

    Despite what big John has to say there is no way that there is any conspiracy.

    What there is is deplorable standards of refereeing, there seemed to be a few very dodgy decisions at St Mirren and Motherwell today.

    The responsibility for that lies with the Head of Refereeing- Hugh Dallas.

    It seems that his cronies get the top matches and pushed onto the FIFA list, in Collum’s case it is certainly not on merit.

    Progress in refereeing doesn’t seem to be based on ability which partly explains the current standards.

    From the behaviour of Dougie Dougie and Dallas last week it seems to be all about protecting each other.

    Last season’s honest mistakes went too far to retain any credibility, only Steve Conroy seems to have suffered, Dougie Dougie and Craig Thomson are still being selected for the bigger matches.

    That sends out a message to others that their poor performances aren’t likely to be punished.

    Steven Craven seems to have been sickened by that attitude and looks like spilling a few secrets which won’t paint smug Shug in the best of light.

    Creating a refereeing structure that is based on ability and merit would go a long way towards restoring credibility- with Dallas involved that’s not going to be possible.

  • greenjedi says:

    “There is no conspiracy”

    If there isn’t it just means 99.99999% of referees in the history of Scottish football have blatently shown their hatred for Celtic individually.

  • jpd says:

    I don’t know why any one would be surprised by any of this. Scotland is a small, parochial society which has a problem with bigotry.

    Football has far too imporatant a role in our daily lives. For over 120 years two clubs have dominated and both are portrayed as being diametrically opposed to each other in every way.

    One represents an embattled immigrant community the other was set up as a middle class rowing club and actually created its own exclusive ‘identity’ almost 40 years after it was first established.

    The people who set Rangers up come from the same exclusive Scottish background that the very people who run Scottish football came from.

    Celtic became huge because of their appeal to the embattled and to fellow travellers attracted by the football, the attitude, the ethos, the spirit…or simply because they did not like what the other side stood for.

    People who support the other clubs in Scotland don’t like Rangers but they find much more not to like about Celtic and not much of this is to do with football.

    However, it is the 21st century, things are better. The sectarianism experienced by our great-grandfathers and grandfathers is not present in Scotland especially with regards to jobs, education, housing and employment but that does not mean it has totally disappeared.

    It is still there and what better way for them to ‘legitmately’ dust it down and celebrate their ancient ‘superiority’ than through the defeat of their upstart rivals on the football field.

    It is not so easy to get away with things in the information age and maybe we are witmessing the death throes of the ‘honest mistake’. Maybe they have tried it on once too often.

    Celtic Football Club needs to join its supporters and push for the final death of the traditional unfair advantage enjoyed by our rivals from across the way.

    Why not begin by refusing to have anything to do with the ‘Old Firm’ tag. No more guilt by association, we are not two sides of the same coin. We do not even belong to the same bloody currency.

  • Specialbhoy says:

    We need transparency from the top of the SFA downwards. Are we just to accept that they say ok, he lied but the decision was right? No way – who came to that decision and what was it based on. Celtic are a member club of the SFA and one of the two main attractions of the Scottish league. We demand to be treated fairly – if not I would rather we quit the league and leave.

  • rr2 says:

    The reason Rangers don’t complain is they get most of the decisions in their favour, the last one I remember going against them was Motherwell 2 years ago.

    Of course Celtic get the odd one in their favour and then it gets pointed out forever how both side get them for and against, circumstances are not taken into consideration a dodgy pen at 1-1 is not the same as a penalty at 3-0

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