Irony. I would like start of this blog by giving an example of the word.Of course you can go and pick up a dictionary and read what the word means but please don’t as I’d prefer you to read and comment on this instead. I have to admit I found it very ironic that the Scottish national team, as far as I am concerned, the SFA’s football team, ended up drawing a match because of poor refereeing decisions.
For years, as a Celtic fan, I have been told that the referees in Scotland are of a high standard, this, despite the fact that they very rarely make it to any European club tournaments or European Championships or World Cup tournaments and so on.
For years, every time there has been a poor decision that’s gone against Celtic, we are told that the referee does not influence the outcome of a match.
I’m thinking of last season’s match v Hamilton when, admittedly, we were awful but lost a goal that was clearly offside and were denied a stone wall penalty. Despite playing so badly, if the correct decisions were given we would probably have left with three points instead of one.
A counter to that argument could be if your Auntie had balls, she would be your Uncle and of course there is no way of knowing if Celtic would have scored the penalty or won that Hamilton match if the correct decisions had been given based on the rules of the game.
I am just dragging up that horrible memory of a match as it’s a reminder that a referee can influence the outcome of a match and they regularly do.
Now to digress a bit, if anyone has read my previous blogs, you will know that I don’t care very much for international football but that is not the reason for what I am writing today. The main reason is that I think the SFA and some elements of the Scottish media should practice what they preach. People in glass houses should not throw stones.
Hopefully this piece doesn’t come across as if I am gloating at the mess of the SFA’s football team – I genuinely was disappointed for my friends who I watched the game with. I watched it with three friends, two of whom are quite passionate about the national team.
Now from a neutrals point of view, I would perhaps suggest that Scotland playing with no strikers v the Czech Republic away from home was perhaps a bigger reason that qualification for Euro 2012 is unlikely than the draw at the weekend.
I am sure a lot of people could give a lot of reasons for the fact that qualification is now very unlikely for Scotland.
Part of what I have mentioned above is the hypocrisy and two faced attitude of some who are calling for the referee to be demoted and for the Czech player to be banned. Where were these calls in any of matches where bad decisions have gone against Celtic?
Where did these people hide when Celtic conceded any number of poor decisions away from home in Europe? One that I can never get out of my mind is Juventus away from home? I’m thinking of the guy who dived (Nicola Amoruso, I believe) in the last few minutes of the game to get a penalty to win the match.
Now as I have stated in the past, all fans of all clubs can easily rhyme off a number of perceived injustices but I just found it so rich coming from the SFA when they are the same organisation who provide sub-standard officials on a weekly basis.
I have heard of the phrase “charity begins at home”, I don’t expect any charity here but surely if the SFA want to have a high standard of officials, they should start by having a high standard of official themselves?
How is that achieved? I have absolutely no idea but there again, it’s not my job to answer that question.
Maybe, just maybe if the SFA and whatever other number of organisations run football in Scotland could get their houses in order and provide a decent standard of football and officials etc., they would gain some sympathy from the uncaring members of the public like me?
Who knows, if the whole organisation was more transparent and competent, I would maybe go along and support my fellow countrymen in their bid to qualify for a major tournament. There really is a special atmosphere, I was near Manchester a few years ago when England played in a world cup and the atmosphere was fantastic. Is Scotland capable of creating something similar? Will we ever get to find out?
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Instead of challenging them, why don’t we be ironic and encourage the poor SFA to push though reforms to stop this kind of injustice reaching our fair shore. Make irony work for us
A well written article.
Thanks Jimmy 🙂
Will UEFA refs now come out on strike?
That Amoruso dive in Turin still haunts me too… The only other thing I remember from that match was when Bobo cleaned Del Piero’s clock in the corner. Proper ‘ball + man = legal pain’ challenge.