Is it really all the fault of one club (guess who)?

The on-going crisis within Scottish football is increasingly being blamed on one club.

Following the lead of SFA President George ‘conspiracy theory’ Peat last week not many people seem prepared to name the club.

Passing aside it’s duties of public service and balance BBC Scotland have been leading the attack on Celtic on an almost daily basis.

The license fee funded state broadcaster has hardly been able to contain it’s excitement with giants of the game such as Donald Findlay, Kenny Clark, Stuart Dougal and John Yorkson given air time to live out their fantasy punishments for Celtic.

Would BBC bosses in London allow a debate between Ed Miliband, Alastair Darling, Harriet Harman and Ed Balls about the economy on Newsnight?

Until an interview yesterday with QC Paul McBride there had been little attempt at balance from the state broadcaster.

While grudgingly admitting that Dougie McDonald shouldn’t be allowed to continue refereeing and that perhaps Hugh Dallas had been foolish to forward on a spoof/satirical/humourous email any discussion has inevitably turned into a full scale attack on Neil Lennon and Celtic in general.

Despite the best wishes of many there is no link whatsoever between Dallas being sacked and Celtic. Not a thing. The bigot from Bonkle brought on his own dismissal in exactly the same way as five other SFA employees were sacked.

Was it Celtic that engineered the sackings of the other employees that had never previously been in the public domain?

Whilst newspapers are a matter of choice and radio stations can be switched off there’s no getting away from the BBC.

Other media outlets live or die by advertising but protected by the license fee the BBC has a unique role which within Scotland at least their sports department uses irresponsibly.

The constant wheeling out of Dougal and Clark for the latest attacks on Celtic must be getting tiresome for even non-Celtic fans, do the BBC not know anyone else with a worthwhile opinion?

Suggestions that Celtic are undermining Scottish football or chasing an agenda flies in the face of the BBC’s own evidence.

Going through the events of the last six weeks on the BBC website it’s difficult to come to any conclusion other than Lennon and Celtic have been very disciplined in their comments.

Not until the defeat from Hearts on November 10 was there any questioning of referee’s precious integrity.

After the lies of Dougie Dougie at Tannadice Lennon suggested that: “I’ll seek clarification, but they’ll probably have their story ready.”

During the Hearts match Lennon had watched Celtic denied a very obvious penalty which resulted in the hoops manager being sent from the dug-out.

John Reid’s comments after the club AGM were the only comments from Celtic at boardroom level in recent weeks and it’s difficult to describe a former cabinet minister as hysterical or paranoid- especially since Dougie Dougie has belatedly accepted Reid’s suggestion and will no longer be telling lies to managers.

LOOKING THROUGH THE BBC SITE

DUNDEE UNITED 1-2 CELTIC 17/10/2010

After praising the quality of the match and Celtic’s play Lennon was no more critical than any other manager of the decision to reverse the penalty decision.

The Celtic boss said: “The linesman took his position up as if it was a penalty. There was a long delay for some reason and the linesman says it’s not a penalty.

“For me, it’s another strange decision that has gone against us in the last six to eight months. The referee was adamant it was a penalty.

“If he has made the decision he shouldn’t really have to be overturned by his linesman. It’s very rare you see that happen.

“I thought Dougie had a far better position and look at it than the linesman.”

Like most observers Lennon was trying to understand the chain of events that saw the penalty overturned. After the match Dougie Dougie lied to the Celtic manager to point the blame for the u-turn at Steven Craven.

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