John Hartson doesn’t dismiss the idea that there is a conspiracy against Celtic.
During his five years as a Celtic player every game against Rangers was against opponents not properly registered with the football authorities and recruited through illegal tax scams. No punishment or 0-3 results were ever awarded.
On the park a number of bizarre incidents took place, some involving Celtic most involving their title rivals.
Sunday’s penalty incident at Ross County had no direct impact on Celtic’s trophy hopes but was another example of the mistakes that happen in matches.
Over the last couple of months Scott Sinclair and Kieran Tierney have been on the wrong end of vicious challenges that haven’t resulted in red cards.
In the derby match against Sevco Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts were targeted by challenges that could easily have resulted in red cards, in neither case was their opponent booked.
At the end of that match Bobby Madden denied Celtic a clear cut penalty when Clint Hill clattered through Leigh Griffiths as he prepared to shoot.
“As a player you go on the pitch and afterwards you look at decisions and think: ‘That was so blatant it’s laughable’,” Hartson admitted in The Sun.
“That decision last weekend? I think the referee must have been unsighted, and just listened to the sound of the crowd noise.
“Otherwise how can you possibly give that? He is the only man in that whole stadium who saw it that way. He guessed. He listened to the crowd noise.
“If he has apologised to Brendan Rodgers he has at least acknowledged he has made a mistake, which is something. As for the conspiracy theories, I’ll leave that to the fans to decide.
“I’ve had two bad ones. There was a League Cup Final against Rangers when I had a goal chalked off that was two yards onside.
“I scored in my first game at Ibrox as well which was onside, but wasn’t given.
“As players we can get sent off, we can two-foot somebody, get a straight red, and you miss three games.
“A referee can cost a team a point, or the title, or cost a team a European place and he’s back in. Where’s the punishment there?”
Sunday’s referee Don Robertson will be an additional assistant in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Sevco.