In an echo of Ally McCoist, Stuart Dougal has demanded to know who was on the SFA panel that accepted St Johnstone’s appeal against the red card issued to Nicky Clark at Ibrox.
Willie Collum once again proved that his interpretation of the Laws of the Game is completely unique with his decision to red card Clark quickly followed by his decision that a worse foul by Ryan Jack minutes later was only worth a booking.
Back in 2012 McCoist demanded to know the names of the Appeal Panel that had put a signing embargo on a club that was in administration with more than £20m owed to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
Rangers director Andrew Dickson had sat in on the week long hearing, answering questions from the panel with McCoist able to find out the exact details from inside Ibrox.
With fans foaming at the mouth and demanding scapegoats for the dire state of their club McCoist launched a witch-hunt during a media conference that resulted in Raith Rovers having to employ round the clock security at Starks Park after threats made because one of their directors had sat on the panel.
Like most on the refereeing circuit Dougal will come up with the most contrived explanations to defend a former colleague, last week he justified all of Collum’s decisions at Ibrox alongside BBC Scotland colleague Mr Amy MacDonald who disagreed over three decisions.
The Sun reports:
Appearing on BBC Scotland’s The VARdict, Stuart Dougal, an ex-FIFA-listed referee, stood by his initial opinion and said: “I think if the review panel is watching that, it’s hard to overturn that.
“It’s hard to see that the referee is clearly wrong and it’s only reckless play as opposed to serious foul play.”
Dougal, who hung up his whistle in 2009, also questioned the make-up of the judicial panel at Hampden.
He said: “The review panel is not made up of all match referees or ex-referees.
“Occasionally an ex-referee can be involved, you can have a number of ex-players, ex-coaches, some lay people, if you like, some sheriffs and lawyers, people with an interest in football.
“From a refereeing perspective, regardless of the overturn, if this [foul] happens next week, next month, next year, that will be a red card all day long.”