Back in action
Referee’s spokesman Martin Cryans will be on the line for tomorrow night’s Champions League clash between CFR Cluj and Roma.
A draw for Roma will be enough to seal their place in the draw for the last 16 alongside group winners Bayern Munich.
The architect of the recent referee’s strike will be back in the firing line assisting the man with bionic eye sight, Willie Collum, with Keith Sorbie also assisting.
Making up the six strong Scottish team of officials is Crawford Allan, Euan Norris and Mike Tumilty.
Collum, whose also scheduled to take charge of Saturday’s Celtic-Kilmarnock match, will be taking charge of his first match since the November 20 Aberdeen-St Johnstone fixture.
Cryans is described as the head of the Scottish Senior Football Referees’ Association which was behind the recent strike action.
With no formal statement explaining the dispute it was left to Kenny Clark and Stuart Dougal to carry out a media blitz attempting to justify the strike.
The weekend of the strike also saw the resignations of Hugh Dallas and Dougie McDonald from their posts with the SFA.
Dallas is believed to have resigned for family reasons ahead of disciplinary action over an offensive email that he sent whilst McDonald gave a scatter-gun statement blaming various factors, including Aiden McGeady, Peter Houston and Motherwell Football Club, for his early retirement.
The last Champions League match to involve Scottish officials ended in controversy when Craig Thomson sent off two Real Madrid players against Ajax in injury time.
Real boss Jose Mourinho, four Real players and the club itself were all fined for improper conduct which saw Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos pick up suspensions to rule then out of their final meaningless Champions League tie with Auxerre.
Neil Lennon-10 years at Celtic
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This is a disgrace. These twats should be punished, not rewarded. Instead of giving them games like this they should be forced to go watch Rangers.