Cryans left
Slipping under the Craig Thomson radar at today’s derby match is assistant referee Martin Cryans- chairman of the highly secretive Scottish Senior Football Referees’ Association.
November’s referee strike was orchestrated by Cryans with the PR specialist disappearing to leave the media offensive to Kenny Clark and Stuart Dougal with the reasons for the strike unknown.
Cryans will assist Thomson at Ibrox with Francis Andrews on the other line.
The SSFRA were an almost unknown organisation until Steven Craven exposed the lies of Dougie Dougie during Celtic’s 2-1 over Dundee United in October.
Craven broke ranks to expose some of the practice’s that go on within refereeing circles highlighting how Celtic manager Neil Lennon was lied to by Dougie Dougie.
Responding to Craven’s revelations Cryans claimed: “I think referees in general and certainly the senior referees in the country will be aghast at some of the assertions that have been made against Hugh Dallas.
“I’ve known Steven for 15 years, trained with him and respect him as a match official but the suggestions he’s making come from someone who, by his own admission, was going by Christmas.
“He has chosen to go a month early and has given his side of events to a newspaper. The guy who was going has chosen to take a pop and there’s not much more to it there.”
Unfortunately for Cryans there was lots more to it with Dallas and Dougie Dougie no longer directly involved in football.
Whilst the referees prepared for strike action it was almost impossible to avoid the views of Dougal and Clark who left no-one in any doubt about which club had triggered the strike.
The former referees were scathing in their criticism of Neil Lennon and Celtic but thin on the ground with evidence to back up their claims.
With the SSFRA staying strangely quiet in the lead up to their strike action it could be assumed that Cryans was in agreement with the thoughts of Clark and Dougal.
Cryans clearly enjoys his work with Firefly Communications and feels that being involved in PR benefits his refereeing career and vice versa.
On his Firefly profile he states: “I have been hooked on the media since I was a boy. I always knew I would end up in this world – I just wasn’t sure where.
“Through my other life as a football referee, I have travelled to many places and brought back a lifetime of memories.
“Football is my release, but the skills built in that environment assist greatly in the communications world.
“The various daily challenges thrown at the PR professional are, for me, more easily dealt with after having felt the icy stare of 60,000 football fans!”
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