Dallas keeps digging a hole for himself

Even when it comes to untruths, to use SFA speak, Hugh Dallas can’t quite get his story right.

A day after one Sunday newspaper suggested that he was considering legal action against Steven Craven the SFA’S Head of Refereeing decided to attack another Sunday newspaper apparently for ‘completely unsubstantiated allegations’.

Unsurprisingly there is no word yet from Dallas over whether he will be taking legal action.

Avoiding the main issue- that Neil Lennon was lied to, that it was claimed Lennon was in agreement with the decision and that the Celtic manager hasn’t received a public apology from anyone at the SFA- Dallas concentrates on who said what when and to who blah blah blah.

Tonight’s statement from the Dallas camp claimed: “ “I wish to make it clear that at no time during that conversation did I suggest to Steven that he called Dougie over to him. I asked Craven to talk me through the incident, which he did.

“I then asked him if he had shouted ‘Dougie, Dougie’ at the time. He said ‘No’. I replied, for clarification, ‘So you didn’t shout “Dougie, Dougie?’ and he repeated the answer, ‘No’.

“I was left in no doubt that he had not initiated the dialogue with the referee and at no time in any subsequent statement that I made did I suggest the contrary.”

The last part of that seems strangely at odds with the version smug Shug gave to the BBC as he explained how everything was all sweetness and light.

On Tuesday October 19 Dallas said: “Dougie, after having given the decision, then received information from the assistant referee that the goalkeeper had played the ball from the better position that the assistant referee was in.”

That seems very like a suggestion that the u-turn was prompted by Craven.

With the referee supervisor’s report becoming public knowledge containing the fantastic Dougie Dougie line even the SFA had to admit that the u-turn was entirely the decision of Dougie Dougie himself.

Friday’s SFA statement read: “As is appropriate in these circumstances, Dougie, unprompted, decided to approach the assistant referee, Steven Craven, who had assumed the required position for the taking of the penalty.”

New SFA Chief Executive Stewart Regan was presented with a fantastic opportunity to restore some credibility to the Scottish game but instead decided to back the Dallas version of events- totally ignoring that the manager of Celtic was lied to.

Regan claimed tonight: “While we will work together to remedy the flaws in the administrative process that emerged as a result of the investigation, at no time was Hugh’s integrity ever called into question.”

Wrong.

Hugh’s integrity has been called into question.

In the two days following the game, and knowing that both the referee supervisor and Lennon had been lied to Dallas told both Radio Clyde and Radio Scotland that the u-turn was instigated by Craven- the Dougie Dougie version.

As he gets ever more economical with the truth perhaps Dallas needs reminded of what he said about Lennon’s reaction as he was lied to by Dougie Dougie.

Speaking to the BBC Dallas claimed: “Neil Lennon took the time to go to the referee’s dressing-room about 40 minutes after the match was concluded,” he said.

“They had a discussion and Neil accepted that the decision was correct. It was just unusual. I think Neil was extremely frustrated that he did not have the opportunity to get an explanation at that time, which is not possible.

“He received a full explanation, which he found acceptable after the match.”

Having failed to question why Dallas spoke publicly knowing that the Celtic manager had been lied to Regan has shown that he isn’t the man to lead the SFA into an era of transparency and honesty.

As an outsider in the affair he has failed miserably to recognise and address the key issues- Regan is now part of the problem rather than a solution.

Dougie Dougie- I don’t know why I agreed to it

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