The SFA have hIt back at the comments of Charlie Richmond after his decision to retIre from refereeing.
Richmond made a number of accusations on Radio Scotland to justify his decision to quit.
“To say I am disappointed by Charlie Richmond’s comments is an understatement,” referees chief John Fleming told the SFA website.
“Charlie claims he lost the support of the ‘decision-makers’ within the Referee Committee yet was reintroduced to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League this season after a prolonged period of performance management. “This involved one-to-one discussions and appointments outwith the SPL in an effort to rebuild his confidence.
“It is curious that Charlie did not see fit to air these grievances while he was officiating in UEFA and SPL matches.
“Over the past few seasons he made a decreasing effort to attend referee association meetings and training sessions. Charlie has also failed to attend our winter training camp – vital for mid-season debriefing and discussion- for the past two seasons.
“While many of his complaints appear to be historic, I consider his comments an affront to the work currently undertaken by the Scottish FA to promote and support referees at all levels.
“I am sure there will be plenty of Charlie’s former colleagues who will feel misrepresented by his comments.”
Richmond’s last Celtic match was the 2-1 win away to Motherwell in November.
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Wow!What a terrible reaction from those in power! First regan, now Fleming! It seems to have escaped the notice of the power-brokers that this is the third referee who has come out and publicly stated that there is a problem in the ranks in recent times. The curious thing is their feedback in extremely consistent in it’s content. Yet they bury their heads in the sand believing that if they don’t investigate it it must be a lie! Look around you guys! It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to see that the system is not only cracked, but severely broken. You all seem to want to protect yourselves from exposure. Why? What are you hiding? Steven Craven was fired and told he could never ref again at any level because he exposed a massive cover-up. He did absolutely nothing wrong. McDonald quit or was fired because he was exposed, Dallas was exposed as a bigot embarrassing the SFA and SPL to the point where they reluctantly had to fire him. he had shown this for years, but was allowed to do it until he embarrassed others. Other refs have spoken out too and been “rewarded” with demotions. There are currently two or three decent refs in Scotland, but there are far more who clearly follow instructions on how games should pan out. Scotland is notorious for producing awful referees. The laughing stock of the European game. Years of cover-up and corruption is starting to show and instead of taking the corrective action and sorting it, you continue to try covering it up better to make these things even harder to uncover. It is a bit like telling a lie to cover another one. The covering up of corruption got rangers where they are today and no doubt, there are people in power who are panicking incase they get exposed also. Clean this game up. Listen to the complaints. Burying your heads in the sand isn’t going to make these facts lies!! Charlie Richmond and Steven Craven have tried to help you clean up your act. Toss the lip-service guys and fix the break!