Craig Thomson
Craig Thomson is being lined up to referee the Celtic-Rangers match on October 24.
Thomson was in charge of last night’s abandoned Italy-Serbia match in Genoa and hasn’t been given a Glasgow derby since his woeful performance at Ibrox last October which forced Hugh Dallas into acknowledging that Celtic should have been awarded a penalty when Shaun Maloney was fouled in the box by Davie Weir.
That was one of several mistakes by Thomson that day with Dallas not giving any reason or explanation for the failure to award Celtic a penalty.
The announcement of who will referee the game will be confirmed by the SFA on Monday but a simple elimination process points to Thomson getting the match.
Last season’s four derby matches were refereed by four different officials who are the only referee’s with experience of the fixture- Thomson, Dougie McDonald, Steve Conroy and Callum Murray.
Being given the derby match is the top award for any Scottish referee with the SFA unlikely to introduce a new face to the opening clash of the season.
On Sunday McDonald, who sent Scott Brown off at Ibrox in February, will be in charge of the Dundee United-Celtic game. The SFA never appoint the same referee for consecutive games with the same club unless it’s forced on them by a Scottish Cup replay.
Conroy, who failed to red card Kyle Lafferty for an X-rated lunge at Andreas Hinkel has virtually disappeared off the radar and hasn’t been in charge of a single competitive game this season… although he was in charge at the recent Gary Hay Testimonial between Kilmarnock and Ayr Utd.
Murray was given the final derby clash of last season, and again using convention it’s very rare for the SFA to have the same referee in charge for consecutive derbies.
Which leaves us with Thomson who, like Murray, hasn’t been given an SPL fixture this weekend.
After the catalogue of errors that littered last season’s Celtic-Rangers games appointing the referee for next Sunday’s game is a thankless task of the SFA’s own making.
With just four referees on the roster who have taken charge of the unique fixture the treatment of Conroy seems strange.
While Thomson was given support and encouragement following his error ridden performance in the October 4 fixture last season, including the honour of refereeing the Co-Operative Cup Final in March, Conroy’s career has gone into sharp decline since the January 3 derby.
At the end of last year Conroy seemed to be given the seal of approval when he was awarded the New Year derby fixture and profiled on the SFA website in glowing terms.
Discussing Conroy’s appointment Dallas said: “When they get a hard time in the media after a game it is our job to thoroughly analyse the performance with them, provide a strong support network and, most importantly, build their confidence up again.
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I suspect they found out where Conroy went to school!
No chance of a fair game for the Celts with him officiating, that’s for sure.
The only real solution to this is getting an English or overseas ref to do this match although Dallas is against this.
There is a volatile fixture played in the middle-east and a foreign official always does this match, indeed Dallas himself done it once.
Maybe the powers that be at Paradise can lobby for this. I know the shame will be dead against it.
I think Al Ahly vs Zamalek in Cairo has foreign referees in charge. I attended one with a guy called Stewart from Scotland in charge (think he was retired). Zamalek won and he ruled out a goal for Ahly. Not popular but he was not accused of intentional bias. I don’t think any Scottish referee would be invited to officiate at a Girls’ Brigade international these days.