Teething issues- Whose side is Michael Nicholson on as he refuses to back Ange Postecoglou in public?

Seven full days ago Celtic were on the wrong end of at least one refereeing decision during the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox.

It was no surprise to Celtic fans the way that the ‘penalty’ incident was played out, going into the fixture the home side hadn’t conceded a penalty in 19 SPFL fixtures. Celtic have had four penalties awarded against them- two at Tynecastle plus the ridiculous decisions against Alexandro Bernabei and Matt O’Riley.

Something was different about the Connor Goldson handball incident at Ibrox- it was in a match where Celtic dropped points, this time the players were unable to overcome the decisions given against them.

Ibrox was a tipping point for Ange Postecoglou.

Typically, after the game the mainstream media didn’t ask any questions about the Celtic penalty claim. Social media certainly did.

After the immediate hilarity of a clip involving Greg Taylor, attention turned to Goldson and the Lanarkshire Tag Team of John Beaton and Willie Collum.

The mainstream tried to deflect and resist it, eventually, with no explanation they grasped at paranoia and conspiracy theories. Four days after the match came the game changer.

Those that thought Postecoglou had just been shrugging his shoulders and accepting the catalogue of errors going against his side were in for a shock.

‘We’ve had at least three major decisions go against us’ the Celtic boss replied to one question at his Friday media conference. With the Michael Smith incident at Tynecastle mentioned there are plenty of options for the other decision that went against Celtic.

Was it one of the penalties awarded against O’Riley or Bernabei- was it Liel Abada’s ‘goals’ that were disallowed against Hearts and Livingston or was it related to the long range camera used to deny Jota a brilliant ‘goal’ at Fir Park.

Since last Monday there hasn’t been any word out of Celtic other than the predictable message to a favoured reporter at the Daily Record that the club was asking questions to the SFA about inconsistencies.

Michael Nicholson is the Celtic CEO but as ever is missing in action when the club is on the receiving end of decisions from the SFA.

At the 2021 AGM he sat in the background as a flustered Ian Bankier claimed that the club had deep concerns about refereeing issues when he was pushed on Bobby Madden and Nick Walsh. It seems that the SFA were able to laugh off Bankier’s concerns, the former Burn Stewart executive is hardly a big hitter, when he enters the room the temperature tends to drop.

Nicholson hasn’t even given Celtic TV an interview in over a year as CEO, other than the AGM he won’t say a word in public- allowing the football authorities to dish out anything to Celtic as the VAR catalogue demonstrates.

At the 2022 AGM he was asked about VAR with the Express picking up on his obedient acceptance of the doubling up of decisions against Celtic:

It’s easy to get caught up in individual decisions one way or the other. It seems that handball is applied in different ways in varying countries.

What we have as a club – and all clubs in Scotland have it – is an interest in having the best possible match officials and regulation of matches so we can focus on football.

As we mentioned last year – and as Ian Bankier almost got into trouble with – we have for many years lobbied the SFA and the SPFL to make sure we got the best match officials possible.

The first step with that was pushing for VAR – which worked out well! The second stage was to raise our concerns about VAR with the SFA. In relation to the specific incident (at Hearts) we did ask questions about how the rules had been applied.

I think it is inevitable that with the early stages of VAR there are going to be some teething issues. But you can rest assured that we do continue to press that issue with the SFA and the SPFL. There is a working group that the SPFL have brought together of all the clubs.

Handing a free pass to the SFA wasn’t the smartest of moves, any questions asked can have ‘teething issues’ thrown back at the Celtic chief.

Taking Postecoglou for granted would be equally unwise, the Greek immigrant to Australia has a firm grasp about the dynamics of Scottish football, the regular appearances of Nick Walsh refereeing Celtic matches, the dominance of the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association.

Four days have passed since Postecoglou aired his grievances, the silence from corporate Celtic is very familiar. The same happened after a pointless statement about Steven McLean’s handling of the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle. The same template was used about Beaton’s handling of a Glasgow Derby in December 2018.

Postecoglou has shielded the Celtic board from a lot of fan anger on the back of the shambles that was 2020/21, the blind faith shown in Neil Lennon, the 104 day search for a replacement. Fortunately carried out Behind Closed Doors.

Even if it means upsetting his friends in the SFA Nicholson really should provide his manager with public backing- anything less is a sign of weakness and Celtic fans know that the football authorities aren’t shy to take advantage of any favourable circumstances.

At Ibrox Willie Collum was the VAR, on Saturday at Hampden he will have an influence on whether or not Celtic reach a cup final.