Roger Mitchell has a fairly surprising take on the refereeing issues that are being highlighted in Scottish football.
In recent weeks James McPake, Robbie Neilson, Graham Alexander, Jack Ross and Stephen Glass have all spoken out about the honest mistakes their side was on the wrong end of against Sevco.
Outside of social media no-one wants to establish a pattern over those decisions. Remarkably it seems that match officials for Sevco games all come from the Glasgow and Lanarkshire Referee Associations.
Ultimately everything comes from Ian Maxwell at the SFA through Crawford Allan, the Head of Refereeing. Allan makes the appointments, he has decided that Nick Walsh is one of the rising stars, he gives Andrew Dallas Fourth Official appointments despite only taking charge of three Championship matches this season.
With a pool of 16 officials refereeing Premiership matches Allan has put Bobby Madden in charge of three of Celtic’s 12 Premiership games, the East Kilbride based referee has only had four other Premiership matches this season.
Since Steven McLean’s handling of the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Inverness Caley Thistle there has been very obvious issues and problems with referees, a year later McLean was rewarded with the Scottish Cup Final.
Refereeing is clearly an issue that the Celtic board are afraid to touch. It seems strange that the SPL CEO who nodded through token contracts for Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer is now lecturing Ian Bankier and friends on how to deal with a serious problem in the Scottish game.
I’ve seen this maelstrom of comments today on #Beaton.
To the people who opine that it was actually a good decision, I have only one thing to offer.
The Wife of Caesar.
Since those fotos in the Rangers bar, he should never have refereed again.
Perception is reality.
— RP Mitchell (@RPMComo) October 28, 2021
I have to say I didn’t. Need to be honest and fair.
We tried to make the refs report to us in the SPL (we paid for them after all) but that’s went down badly.
But don’t forget that in 1999 I ran the SPL and Jack was president of the SFA. Tims both.
— RP Mitchell (@RPMComo) October 28, 2021
I’d summon Maxwell to my office. Tell him to remember which club put him there and remind him that this could be reversed.
Only bullies survive in Glasgow football.
— RP Mitchell (@RPMComo) October 28, 2021