Fresh from the refereeing controversies over the last two weekends the SFA have decided to give Callum Murray a double appointment at the upcoming St Johnstone-Celtic clashes.
For reasons best known to themselves Murray has been appointed as the fourth official for Wednesday’s Co-Operative Cup tie between the two teams ahead of taking charge of Saturday’s SPL clash at the same venue.
Murray is on the elite list of referee’s to have handled a Celtic-Rangers derby match, taking charge of Celtic’s 2-1 win over Walter Smith’s side in May of this year.
Dougie McDonald, who awarded Dunfermline two penalties at Dundee on Saturday, and Willie Collum have both been left out of action this weekend with Ian Brines taking control of the Rangers-Inverness Caley Thistle match at Ibrox.
Collum will be back in action at tomorrow’s Motherwell- Dundee United Co-Operative Cup tie, clearly the SFA believe that it’s best for the 31-year-old to be put back in charge of a match as quickly as possible after his first Old Firm match.
Murray will get a good preview of Saturday’s match as the fourth official for Wednesday’s Co-Operative Cup tie between St Johnstone and Celtic.
Whoever decided to appoint Murray as the fourth official standing between the two technical areas then put him in charge of the same clubs three days later clearly has a warped sense of humour.
Murray is bound to be on the end of some ‘advise’ from Neil Lennon and Derek McInnes on Wednesday and it’s only human to expect him to carry some of those sentiments onto the pitch on Saturday.
The lack of officials in the Scottish game is a cause for concern but surely there are plenty of others that could take on the fourth official duties on Wednesday night rather than place additional pressure on Saturdays referee.
As assistant referee Steven Craven considers his resignation after becoming the fall guy at the Dundee United-Celtic match he’ll be interested to read an interview with Michel Platini on the SFA website which asks associations to back their officials.
The President of UEFA says: “The referee has to be helped by the clubs, the fans, by players, by the media and also by the authorities – everyone has a responsibility.”
Reading between the lines it seems that Craven feels left out as Hugh Dallas backs Dougie McDonald to the hilt with Craven the convenient victim of the honest mistake at Tannadice.
SFA call Hugh Dallas to account
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You kind of have to feel a bit sorry for Steven Craven with this. The ref had the chance to bail him out by pulling the penalty incident back for the initial foul by Kenneth on Hooper, thus taking him out of the firing line.
Hugh Dallas hung him out to dry and quite rightly he’s resigned over the matter. If only Hugh Dallas would do the same. if only…
What resulted has been a media frenzy, heaping pressure onto Willie Gollum’s shoulders for yesterdays match which you just knew that any decision dubious or otherwise was always going to go against us.