Meet the ref- honest Craig Thomson
Since then Thomson has been consistently woeful and just as consistently rewarded for his performances with high profile matches and put forward by the SFA for international appointments.
Even amongst the recent catalogue of refereeing nightmares Thomson’s last derby performance stands out.
Twice in the early stages Shaun Maloney was sent tumbling in the penalty box but rather than award Celtic a penalty and send off a Rangers defender only Maloney found himself in Thomson’s book.
Within 24 hours of the final whistle shamed former referee supremo Hugh Dallas issued a half hearted apology saying that Celtic should have had one penalty.
With Rangers two goals up, due entirely to Celtic’s own defensive problems, Thomson finally did award Celtic a 25th minute penalty which Aiden McGeady converted.
Having set an early standard in incompetence Thomson’s proceeded to blunder through the rest of the match.
Davie Weir seemed immune from punishment despite repeated fouls on Scott McDonald, Kyle Lafferty’s x-rated challenge on Zheng Zhi went unpunished with Mark Wilson also booked for simulation.
The card count at the end of the day was the only contest that Celtic won which is a common theme in games refereed by Thomson.
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Casting a neutral eye over that match last October was Motherwell manager Jim Gannon who was amazed by the display that he witnessed.
Two months after the match in the middle of a war of words with Dallas the Motherwell manager claimed: “Dallas had to defend the referee because the result of the game might have been different if he’d got his decisions correct at Ibrox.
“Celtic might look back on that result at the end of the season and decide that Ibrox in October is when they lost the league championship.
“There’s a question mark over the standard of refereeing in Scotland and the mistakes that are being made are having an effect on the league table.”
Rangers won the championship by six points.
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Neil Lennon was ordered from the technical area by Thomson after the referee overlooked a deliberate handball by Ryan Stevenson that could have given Celtic a penalty and a chance to salvage something from the match.
A charge of excessive misconduct is still hanging over Lennon almost two months after the match.
In the spirit of The Scotsman newspaper it should be pointed out that Thomson is employed as a lawyer with Forth Electrical Services.
Click here for photo gallery of Thomson at work.
As a company with five offices throughout Scotland Thomson’s work takes him into contact with a number of different types of business with FES currently carrying out extensive repair work at Ibrox.
Why the SFA have put a referee in charge of a match in which the company that he works for has a working relationship with one of the competing clubs is beyond explanation.
The lack of suitable referees created under the Dallas regime is a major issue for the SFA to tackle but whoever decided that appointing Thomson for the Glasgow derby really should explain them self.
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Even the most famous referee of all-time Pierluigi Collina had his career come to a premature end due to a conflict of business interests.
In 2005 the Italian Football Federation decided to raise the retirement age for referees in order to give Collina an extra season at the top level.
Collina however agreed a sponsorship deal with Opel, sponsors of AC Milan, backed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, which set off the alarm bells within the IFF who are well used to dealing with scandals.
Despite pressure from the IFF Collina refused to cancel his sponsorship deal with Opel which forced him into retirement.
After Sunday’s derby clash at Ibrox Thomson will return to the day job at FES with no-one at the SFA having the foresight to prevent a clear conflict of interest.
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