Surprise surprise, less than 24 hours after claiming ‘I will make no further comment’ to the SFA website Hugh Dallas was breaking his vow of silence today on Radio Scotland.
In an interview with Chick Young Dallas again went into detail about the SFA’s tracking system and how they follow up on all correspondence.
The postal system in use at Hampden is unlikely to ever be a talking point amongst football supporters, players or manager.
“No one has explained the Royal Mail saga or Royal Mailgate as we call it,” Dallas joked. “Comments from managers, coaches and also club directors is something that we treat very seriously.
RESPONCE
“They are frequenly in contact with me and they always get a responce. All of the copy letters, the Royal Mail tracking, the recepit of letters from Motherwell have all been catalogued and listed and sent back to Motherwell.”
Perhaps if equal attention was given to refereeing standards as to following the post Jim Gannon would have less to complain about.
Dallas once again avoided the question of poor refereeing, Gannon’s most outspoken comments on refereeing came after his opponents, Dundee United, had had two players sent off against Motherwell.
Bringing up Craig Thomson’s performance in the October 4 Rangers-Celtic game reopened an old sore with Dallas.
Such were Thomson’s errors that day that Dallas came out and admitted that he had made ONE mistake, other contentious incidents involving penalties and bookings were quickly swept over by the admission of one mistake.
EXPLANATION
No explanation was given for the mistake, we weren’t told if the referee was unsighted or why he failed to award Celtic a penalty which would likely have also involved a booking for David Weir.
“I thought that the Dallas soap opera had finished in the 80s,” Gannon replied when told about the latest comments from the man that was fourth official at the 2002 World Cup Final.
“The SFA PR machine is much stronger than hours they get on the front pages of newspapers and the BBC website.”
Gannon’s intervention and comments are a welcome breath of fresh air to Scottish football where too often mistakes and incompetence are excused with the time honoured ‘these things even themselves out over the course of the season’ excuse.
An invite to explain his comments is bound to be heading Gannon’s way, that hearing at the SFA could be as explosive the great ‘Who Shot JR’ mystery of the eighties.