Football Soccer - Rangers v Dumbarton - Ladbrokes Scottish Championship - Ibrox Stadium - 5/4/16 Rangers' James Tavernier celebrates after being promoted to the Scottish Premiership Action Images via Reuters / Russell Cheyne Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
The Daily Record is preparing their readers for a special celebration of Tavpen.
Fans of 11 Premiership clubs in Scotland know exactly what is going on as the former Wigan utility man closes in on this season’s Golden Boot award for the leading scorer in the top division.
While opposing fans have been used to the frequency of penalty awards against their side it has been noticeably cranked up since Philippe Clement arrived to salvage the season.
As the Lint Twitter account notes before Clement arrived the rate of penalties was at a ridiculous 0.38 (almost one every third match), under the Belgian the rate has shot up to 0.57 which means at least one penalty in every second match.
‘Penalty to Rangers’ proves more than a meme as Ibrox side on verge of breaking 2 spot kick WORLD RECORDS https://t.co/6eznLVHB76
“They have averaged 0.38 penalties per game so far and that ratio wld need upped fairly significantly to 0.56 or more in their final stretch of games to break the record.”
Domestically, under Clement, Rangers have received 16 penalties in 28 games – a ratio of 0.57.
Game on ? https://t.co/wRRH94VLdq pic.twitter.com/epOL2qx0EZ
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) April 12, 2024
href=”https://t.co/w0aYAuBBrK”>https://t.co/w0aYAuBBrK
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) April 12, 2024
It’s become a meme within Scottish football social media circles but ‘penalty to Rangers’ could soon be a history-making phrase.
That’s because the Ibrox side are just five penalties away from the most EVER awarded to a team in a single season. Rival fans love to poke fun whenever those three words are posted in capital letters and the running joke – some aren’t kidding – is that there’s a reason they seem to get more spot-kicks than anyone else.
That of course isn’t always strictly true: last season, they were awarded 13 penalties, joint-most in Scotland with Hearts and two more than Celtic. This campaign, however, Rangers are out on their own. James Tavernier’s successful conversion against Celtic came from the 19th penalty they have been awarded in all competitions; 14 in the Premiership as well as one against Servette in Champions League qualifying and two in each domestic cup competition.
There is nothing funny or amusing about PENALTY TO RANGERS unless you are employed in the Scottish media.
The stats have been running in tandem with the fear of SFA referees awarding penalties against the 2012 Tribute Act who have enjoyed runs of 64 and 75 SPFL matches without having a penalty awarded against them, a run that ties in with the appointment of Crawford Allan as Head of Refereeing.
Recently the Record has been priming their army of elderly readers for Jack Butland getting an England call up, after Gareth Southgate attended last week’s Glasgow Derby the issue has been completely dropped by Record Sport.
Since Willie Collum was last involved in an SPFL match involving Clement’s side David Dickinson has refereed his favourite club three times, tomorrow Dickinson is on VAR duty for Celtic v St Mirren.
No Scottish referees are expected to be selected for the European Championships in Germany.
Most pens SCORED in a season:
LEAGUE ONLY:
Messi: 10
(2011-12)Ronaldo: 12
(2011-12, 2019-20)Tavernier: 11
(2018-19, 2023-24)ALL CLUB COMPS:
Messi: 14
(2011-12)Ronaldo: 14
(2011-12, 2019-20)Tavernier: 14
(2018-19, 2023-24)Joint world record holder in all club comps? pic.twitter.com/3t64X8kDlw
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) April 12, 2024
“They have averaged 0.38 penalties per game so far and that ratio wld need upped fairly significantly to 0.56 or more in their final stretch of games to break the record.”
Domestically, under Clement, Rangers have received 16 penalties in 28 games – a ratio of 0.57.
Game on ? https://t.co/wRRH94VLdq pic.twitter.com/epOL2qx0EZ
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) April 12, 2024
Who is the least trusted referee in Scotland?
Beaton- a back catalogue like no other
Collum- has never had his eyes on the ball
Dickinson- the dangerous rising star
McLean- nothing will beat the Caley Thistle semi
Robertson- Tynecastle was an all-time low
Walsh- Utterly compromised by the day job
Joe – that lead picture – down with that kind of thing.
Editor: A reminder of the sort of level the World’s Greatest Defender gets success at.
Might be wrong,, but am sure the bookies are no longer taking bets on pens for or against them, if true it speaks volumes to wots gone on
Another embarrassing statisic avoided was when a penalty was awarded against them recently, first in two years, simply to stop them acheiving the record of the longest spell without one as one more game would have done for them.
We needca bookmaker like Paddy Power to come out and say that they ain’t accepting bets on a sevco getting a penalty,at that point you would then have the other High Street bookmakers following suit.
I’m very surprised the betting industry having been looking into this as irregularities,as they seem to be quick off the mark wirh anything else dodgy in the game,and let’s face you can’t get anymore dodgy than the shite that’s going on just now with sevco and the SFA/SPFL.
That would open a can of worms if the betting industry starting doing a good bit of digging there,and panic would set in at Hunden.
Joe this statistic is sad but true.
We wonder why we can’t attract decent sponsorship money.
I personally blame the Celtic Board.
Editor: No imagination or ambition in any aspect.
You do not have to be small-minded to follow the football here.
But it defintely helps!
Well, we all know how much of a Tim Peter Lawwell is and how he stands up for Celtic?
Also, he’s supposedly got a fantastic dossier on how Celtic gets cheated at every turn and the new huns benefit from systemic cheating, right? (If needed I’m sure guys like Lint would help him pad out his dossier.)
Now here’s some terrific news for our ‘life-long Tim’, Chairman Lawwell who’s just itching to have a go at that nasty SFA and stop our club being cheated.
A precedent has been set in European football by Turkey after complaints about cheating and they’ve arranged to bring in foreign VAR operators until the end of the season. What a great idea, maybe even permanent?
So Peter, I’m prepared to take your leish and muzzle off and let you loose on the SFA.
Up for it are you? Good man….go on…..you’ll mibbaes even get that statue you’re after.
Hopefully UEFA / FIFA are aware and have a wee look.