The Aberdeen Evening Express (Press & Journal) has followed up on Richard Gordon’s brilliant summary of the bias shown by referees in SPFL matches to the club from Ibrox.
At that time the run was at 68 since Kevin Clancy awarded a penalty against Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side in January 2022. Unless there is an incredible shock, tonight Alan Muir will take that tally to 72 with Steven Kirkland on VAR duty in case there are any slip ups.
BBC Scotland, who employ Gordon as the presenter of Sunday Sportsound haven’t gone near the subject despite their massive resources, broadcasting hours and internet content dedicated to football.
Graham Spiers briefly picked up on the issue for his podcast but decided against taking the issue onto the pages of The Times (London) while the Daily Record touched on it 10 days after publication as they passed the time online.
Since Gordon’s article was published Don Robertson and Andrew Dallas have ignored two very strong penalty claims in the final of the League Cup with Viaplay Sport barely covering the claim during their Hampden coverage.
Giving fresh legs to the issue, Sean Wallace of the Evening Express writes:
Yet again an Aberdeen clash against Rangers ended with a controversial injury time penalty decision going the way of the Ibrox club.
An injury time challenge on Duk was one of two strong Aberdeen penalty shouts rejected in the 1-0 Viaplay Cup final loss to Rangers at Hampden.
Should anyone be surprised?
Penalties against Rangers, particularly in the Premiership, appear as regularly as Halley’s Comet.
It’s an elephant in the room of Scottish football which needs to be addressed.
Rangers have not conceded a penalty in the league since VAR was introduced in Scotland on October 21 last year.
Granted an 81st minute penalty was awarded against Rangers in their 3-1 Viaplay Cup semi-final defeat of Hearts last month, but the Ibrox club were already 3-0 up when Lawrence Shankland converted the spot-kick.
Rangers have now gone an astonishing 71 matches in the Premiership without conceding a penalty.
This lack of penalties in the Premiership is an anomaly which will leaves the Scottish game open to accusations of bias.
It suggests there has not been a single foul committed by a Rangers player in their own box in 71 league matches, or 6,390 minutes of action.
Wow! Rangers’ current crop of defenders must be blessed with the collective defensive talents of Paolo Maldini, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore and Willie Miller.
Oddly, their defensive prowess hasn’t extended to Europe, with the Gers conceding four penalties in 20 European matches since last facing a Scottish top-flight spot-kick.
The last time Rangers faced a Premiership penalty was January 18, 2022, when Lewis Ferguson converted for Aberdeen from the spot in a 1-1 draw.
Aberdeen Chairman Dave Cormack and CEO Alan Burrows like to reflect on issues through Twitter, picking up on concerns from supporters but have body-swerved the issues from Hampden on Sunday.
So the Celtic board and Aberdeen board swerve the problem. Makes you realise that they could all be involved in the corruption for money reasons and every football fan in the country is being conned on a game by game basis. Absolutely rigged and totally honking.
Why aren’t Aberdeen and Celtic and other clubs liaising on this disgraceful subject ?
The longer people sit on their hands saying nothing …the more the tribute act receive favourable ,highly dodgy decisions from match officials . Stand up and be counted by expressing your opinions on this matter which is destroying the integrity of the game .
Wise cracks at the AGM does nothing to alleviate this weekly shambles ! A nice long , revealing and detailed E-mail to the governing bodies would …big time !
I’m reliably informed that a pantomime currently running in Edinburgh contains a gag about a decision – which has nothing at all to do with football – being referred to the VAR, with the on-screen response being (you’ve guessed it) ‘PENALTY RANGERS’.
That’s how openly acknowledged this situation is – a pantomime show aimed at primary school children contains a gag about Rangers getting favourable treatment from VAR. It’s quite clear the SFA will not willingly reform itself, so the member clubs can either choose to grumble and moan but essentially do nothing in perpetuity, or they can get involved in reforming a system which is not only not fit for purpose, it is venally corrupt to the point of making the game in Scotland a laughing stock to the rest of the world.
It’s all gettimg a bit tedious, this remarkable non-penalty sevco run.
A blind man and his dug can see this is rigged.
And you don’t have to be a statistics expert either to spot the significance.
Aberdeen – arguably – lost a decent shot at a trophy because of the match officials.
We – arguably – could end up losing both the SC and the league due to dodgy decisions.
But, why should we be bothered?
Our Board can be facetious during the AGM,
but CHOOSE to avoid escalating this topic like the plague.
Why?
And I do not, for one second, believe that our club is making any noises
in the background at Hampden.
PL sold us that lie back in 2012,
and most of us gave him the benefit of the doubt – then. 🙁
lawless the ring leader thinks its very funny for our famous club being used like a fucki n doormat !!!
Where does the rot end…. tonight St J get a yellow upgraded by VAR to a red in first half. The filth then get a goal and would you believe it their statutory penalty comes in 86 mins as St J had held the score at 1-0 and some light needed to be put between them to ensure the establishment team gets the win. It’s not even funny anymore. So why Lawwell thinks it is, when cheating on such an industrial scale is negatively impacting us and others is pathetic. Bring back the man in the bunnet. Wee Fergus would not stand for this. I’m a STH in my 50’s and this is the worst I’ve seen it in my lifetime. It is way beyond acceptable now. A fking Board that says/does nothing tangible to challenge this rot, is making Uncle Tom’s of us all.
Had a penalty awarded nearly every game since he arrived
No penalty conceded in the league for 72 games
Corrupt refs and var turning a blind eye for them every week
Now the c*nt doesn’t want his players getting tackled
Big Lundstrum being kicked off the park.????? I’ve fckn heard it all now.
These fckrs are now taking the pss. Stand up Celtic because we’ve now had enough.
Jay Walker – Just to bring a bit of balance, the red was given after they had already scored, and it was a stonewaller, he nearly broke his ankle. If it had been on a Celtic player I’d have been screaming for a red. Ref initially gave a yellow, correctly upgraded to a red. Their penalty was a stonewaller as well, so I’ve no argument there either. For us to actually show that there’s bias, we should be highlighting decisions that are quite obviously wrong, not questioning decisions that are correct.
A very fair point indeed Dixie !
Not sure if Var is helping the game.
Don’t see many checks during European football, Ref makes a decision and var hardly interferes.
Scottish football is wide open to Bias regarding The Rangers & Celtic, I will state that Jersey pulling still happening is dam stupid from any opposition player.
Doing silly tackles inside the box is the same, stay on your feet and you can still block the ball, those sliding in can’t recover quickly enough to try a block.
Our football is rather poor.
I can see most clubs voting var out, not because var is at fault, vote out as the people operating it are not impartial.
Wow………..1 penalty conceded in ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN games, there is deep, deep corruption in Scottish football.
HH