New television footage suggests that Alan Muir may have called for Celtic to get a penalty when Josh Meekings punched away Leigh Griffiths netbound header.
A vine produced last night focuses on Muir who appears to be saying ‘penalty, penalty’ in his role of additional assistant referee.
Whether Stevie McLean heard that instruction or decided to over rule it remains to be seen with the incident having the potential to match the infamous Dougie Dougie controversy at Dundee United in 2010.
In that incident match referee Dougie McDonald decided to make Steven Craven the fall guy after he initially awarded Celtic a penalty at Tannadice then decided to over-rule and put the decision down to Craven.
McDonald confirmed that version of events with Hugh Dalllas after the match with the former refereeing chief going on radio to explain what had happened with the blame firmly on Craven.
The assistant referee seemed prepared to accept that version of events but when his own performance was marked down and he realised how he had been sacrificed to protect McDonald he resigned from the SFA and spoke out about his version of events.
After yesterday’s decision not to award Celtic a penalty and send off Meekings there was almost universal amazement at the incident across all media platforms.
The role of McLean and Muir will come under scrutiny with five more Celtic games to be played this season- it’s highly unlikely that either official will be given a hoops fixture.
How the SFA assess their own officials remains something of a mystery but it is generally accepted that Willie Collum was left out for a few rounds of fixtures after a run of his decisions resulted in successful appeals.
Neither McLean or Muir fall into the Craven category- both are seen among the elite group of referees that get the bigger matches and the UEFA appointments.
While the refereeing fraternity put on a united front there is a keen rivalry among them to get to the top with the goal being appointed to a European Championship or World Cup Finals alongside the top European matches.
As the blame game continues behind closed doors there is some evidence to suggest that Muir felt it was a penalty- whether McLean’s career continues in its uninterrupted upward spiral remains to be seen.
