Over the weekend there were two great refereeing controversies in Scottish sport.
One was generally greeted with a giggle from the media while the other has become a national outrage.
Alan Muir’s failure to award Celtic two clear cut penalties and red card Motherwell’s Kieran Kennedy has been met by silence by the SFA with refereeing minion John McKendrick sent to Radio Clyde to explain that Muir and his assistant may have been unsighted!
If Muir couldn’t spot two very obvious penalty incidents a long stint in the junior ranks should improve his positioning.
Within 24 hours of Scotland being beaten by Australia following the award of a late penalty the World Rugby Board issued a statement confirming that the decision by Craig Joubert was wrong.
Simple, the referee made a mistake. A highly important mistake in a game that 90% of the television audience has little idea about the rules.
The enjoyment of watching groups of men rolling about scrambling for an odd shaped ball escapes me. Waiting for a referee to raise his arm in one direction or another adds to the confusion. What on earth is offside all about?
What is the difference between being awarded a penalty or a put-in at a scrum? Football really has it lucky with easy to follow understandable rules although offside is becoming a bit of a science.
Since Joubert awarded a penalty the criticism has been fierce- so intense that some people have even taken to looking up the laws of the game.
Aware of the outcry and conscious of the media age and the need to explain matters the World Rugby Board issued a statement yesterday.
It read: “Following a full review of match officials’ performance, the World Rugby match official selection committee has clarified the decision made by referee Craig Joubert to award a penalty to Australia for offside in the 78th minute of the Rugby World Cup 2015 quarter-final between Australia and Scotland at Twickenham.
“The selection committee confirms that Joubert applied World Rugby Law 11.7 penalising Scotland’s Jon Welsh, who had played the ball following a knock-on by a team-mate, resulting in an offside.
“On review of all available angles, it is clear that after the knock-on, the ball was touched by Australia’s Nick Phipps and Law 11.3(c) states that a player can be put on-side by an opponent who intentionally plays the ball.
“It is important to clarify that, under the protocols, the referee could not refer to the television match official in this case and therefore had to rely on what he saw in real time. In this case, Law 11.3(c) should have been applied, putting Welsh onside. The appropriate decision, therefore, should have been a scrum to Australia for the original knock-on.
“Overall, it is widely recognised that the standard of officiating at Rugby World Cup 2015 has been very high across 44 compelling and competitive matches to date.
“World Rugby High Performance Match Official Manager Joël Jutge said: “Despite this experience, Craig has been and remains a world-class referee and an important member of our team.”
While there is nothing that can revive Scotland’s World Cup dream there is an element of closure with a precise explanation of the rule and confirmation that the referee got it wrong. He is human.
Meanwhile in football, more than 48 hours have passed since the events at Fir Park without a word of explanation never mind an admission that the referee, and his assistant got it wrong.
While nothing can be done to effect Saturday’s result the silence surrounding footballing decisions does the game no favours.
Football has many marginal decisions mainly involving the offside rule that supporters accept can be marginal and go one way or the other.
The lack of an explanation or any obvious accountability doesn’t help.
Last season Willie Collum had red cards overturned in successive games, this season a red card issued to Callum Paterson of Hearts has already been overturned- how many decisions do the SFA have to overturn before Collum is given a six month run in the lower divisions?
With no explanation of what went wrong at Fir Park it’s only a matter of time before similar incidents take place, following the lead of rugby wouldn’t do football any harm and perhaps ensure higher standards with match officials knowing that only the best will get to handle the high profile fixtures.
Nothing is going to change……HONEST MISTAKES ???
My concern is Celtic FC saying nothing, do they want to drive fans away from game. When Sevco enter the top league wait till we see the honest mistakes increase.
Forget ten in a row won’t be allowed to happen at any cost. Now the time to complain before zombies appear.
hear hea..? here he…? ………erm I agree totally
I know of a few supporters who have written/E-mail Celtic to ask what they intend to about this very serious issues. As many Celtic supporters should be following these examples
Ten in a row juggernaut cannot be stopped.
Peter Grants Grandfather used to travel on our supporters bus
I always wondered as a young kid when sitting beside him and my uncle why he would do this.
On arrival at the game sitting in his usual place he would shout at the ref your nothing but an orange B&st&rd ref.
We Don’t know who he is yet came the reply from fans around him, I’t doesn’t matter he would say they are all the same. It’s only when you get older you realise yes you were right.
The Rugby was very refreshing in its honesty, and a lesson to the corrupt way in which football is run.
You can give the ref the benefit of the doubt after knowing that if he could have went to the tv monitor officials he would have.
This was simply an honest mistake and one you can take, no matter how tough it is on the scottish team.
The Aussies may have scored from the try who knows,also the line out was poor and poor play caused it in the first place,I don’t know if it was zonal or man marking they were doing at the line out glad it wasn’t celtics back 4 they would still be on about it.
It just proves the need for tv evidence to be used,it would make our game more enjoyable and give the fans back the game.
It’s never going to happen though!
Totally agree that Rugby’s way of doing things re. video evidence should be introduced to football.
Given that the “Committee” end up looking at video evidence anyway,when an appeal is launched,or when the Compliance Officer decides to get involved,why not just do it at the time ?
I think it has to be accepted ‘though that the standard of refereiing in Scotland,in general,is so bad that this would only highlight the failings…So it ain’t gonny happen.
Although…Does anyone know if the Clubs have “the power” to bring this into the game…or do we have to rely on a corrupt SFA making the decision ?
As for the Muir incidents…Our Club HAS to get involved here one way or another..and its a disgrace that they haven’t.
As for Muir…Why inflict his incompetence (I’m being kind here) on the Juniors ..?
SACK HIM…
Yep sack him,and he can go sit at the bigotdome beside the other sacked or retired referee’s.
It’s interesting to note that even in Rugby league they have a 24-48 hour turnaround on appeals with a panel who are connected online of ex-pros and refs all making decisions quickly so that no player wrongly cautioned or sent off, would then also miss another game. (Or become the shambles that is our SFA and even EPL apeals process). Lodge the appeal lottery……..
We are miles behind and for decades we have been pushed off with lame excuse after excuse as to why football’s different and how video technology doesn’t always work……..the poor refs……!!!
The truth is our governing bodies are totally corrupt and inept. The game is no longer about the game but about keeping the wheels turning. Hell half the teams in the major leagues have no ambitions to challenge, it simply is not profitabe or financially viable. Better just to stay in the middle of the pack and collect your cheque.
That being the case, and the fact that you have De Gea’s and Rooney’s holding their clubs to ransom then being “awarded” new contracts worth 200k pw, it’s all headed down the one road. I’m glad I have my team which happens to be Celtic, who with Rangers (oldco), bullied their way to receiving voting preferences in their own leagues.
I accept there is a case for some of this, but surely we the fans must start to take control of the game we supposedly love. Pay your SKY and stop moaning they say. So we work and pay our money for guys like Balotelli to turn up at Anfield for a year and collect a couple million.
We have a few issues to iron out all right. Sorting the ref part should be the easy part.
Surely it would be good to have a forum and dialogue starting that sets out to turn the direction and management of our game into something we can all be proud of. I’m sure there are many honest pros who would be more than happy to step in and make a contribution.
So the Rugby association fessed up. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Scotland are still out of the World Cup, and the Aussies are still through.
It’s easy to hold the hands up if you are doing nothing about it.
The SFA are not going to learn anything except not to accept any complaints. But they are there already!
The SFA are arrogant. They always have been. They are blatantly biased and bigoted. They bred it, they still breed it. We may be the biggest club Scotland ever had, but the SFA are still in control whether we like it or not. Don’t you think that FIFA and UEFA getting away with the corruption for so long is s clue to how little the SFA care? We are in a bigoted country. We have had to live with it for hundreds of years. It isn’t going to change. They are too arrogant to give a toss. They participated in the corruption at ibrox for years, they assisted in making sure the old defunct rangers equalled our nine in a row, and they still breed bigotry. They really don’t care. Don’t expect accountability now. It isn’t going to happen.
Time for all PL chairmen to demand that rugby review ,clarity and honesty is applied to the game IMMEDIATELY! What’s the excuse not to?
All it needs is for coaches and managers to collectively criticise any incompetent or biased refereeing then ignore any summons from the sfa to appear also give them the finger to any punishment inflicted.old rangers (il) and craig whyte have given them the rubber ear for nearly four years now with no comeback.it’s time this lot were brought to book for their secrecy.any threats from them should be immediately be referred to the c.a.s.hh