Six days after the shameful events at Ibrox and a day after the equally pathetic whitewash of John Beaton’s performance Celtic have finally found their voice.
Rather than the template ‘surprised and disappointed’ statement there seems to be some meat on today’s communication.
Throughout the 90 minutes Beaton consistently gave decisions in one direction, best highlighted by his refusal to speak to, book or send off Alfredo Morelos.
Three times this season the SFA ave taken retrospective action after honest mistakes in matches against Celtic, incredibly Morelos has been able to get off scot-free from three, four or five red card offences.
No statement was made yesterday by the SFA, just some friendly whispers and emails to trusted media sources to pass on the message without any explanation.
Today Celtic responded with their first comment on refereeing matters since Steven McLean’s abysmal display in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle. A year later McLean was rewarded with the Scottish Cup Final.
Celtic is not the only club this season to raise concerns regarding the standard of officiating at matches in Scotland, concerns which have also been shared by many commentators on the game.
In order to fully understand what is going on, Celtic, our supporters, Scottish clubs and the general Scottish football public need transparency in these matters, and we therefore call on the Scottish FA to allow the referee, John Beaton, to explain these decisions publicly as well as any match officials involved in other similar circumstances.
In the meantime, we have requested a meeting with Scottish FA Chief Executive, Ian Maxwell, and the Association’s Head of Refereeing.
Celtic can set the tone by publishing in full Beaton’s match report and also the report from the Referee Supervisor.
That would really expose the old boy network and the motives of the newly appointed Compliance Officer.
Anything less will be another betrayal of the Celtic support who are no longer prepared to be treated as second class citizens as they were for the Betfred Cup semi-finals.
