Chris Sutton has articulated the views of many Celtic fans over the SFA.
Yesterday, without any statement, explanation or report word was leaked to favoured news outlets that no action would be taken against Alfredo Morelos over his catalogue of assaults on Celtic players during the Glasgow derby.
Sky Sports highlighted attacks on Scott Brown, Anthony Ralston and Ryan Christie with two further attacks on Christie highlighted through social media.
With their secretive system of reporting it was claimed that Beaton witnessed all ‘three’ incidents and decided that they weren’t worthy of disciplinary action. Morelos wasn’t even spoken to or booked. With the SFA and referees accountable to no-one no questions were asked about Beaton’s judgement.
To the outsider Beaton’s actions were a joke, the reaction of the SFA suggest something much more sinister is at work.
Writing in the Daily Record Sutton claims:
A friend of mine called on Thursday afternoon after the decision was announced and said, ‘I know there are all these conspiracies in Scottish football, but letting Morelos off just makes it looks like the SFA want Rangers to win the league’.
I had no answer to him. What could I say? That’s exactly what it looks like.
Face it, this ridiculous non-decision leaves the SFA wide open to accusations of corruption.
Look, this is not a case sour grapes. I said in my column earlier in the week. Rangers were the better team, they deserved to win the match and Morelos is the best striker in the league.
Take nothing away from Rangers, their performance was exceptional but any sane supporter in Scotland will admit Morelos was extremely fortunate to stay on the pitch. Simple as that.
If they had applied the rules correctly then El Buffalo would have been on the end of three separate red cards.
That means three bans, six games, or even more if they pushed him through the disciplinary points totting up threshold but yet again it looks like the SFA have bottled it.
CLICK HERE– John Beaton and the Crown Bar, Bellshill
Beaton is one of seven SFA referees on the elite FIFA list, like Beaton three of the others are members of the Lanarkshire Referee Association. The others are Andrew Dallas, Willie Collum and Bobby Madden.
There is no accountability of refereeing within the Scottish game with John Fleming appearing to be untouchable with Craig Levein, Neil Lennon and Derek McInnes highly critical of match officials. Neil McCann claims that decisions made by Steven McLean contributed to him losing his job as manager of Dundee.