McGowan shares his Corn Flakes Conspiracy as he defends Dallas, Beaton and Dickinson
Stephen McGowan has turned to Corn Flake Conspiracies as he launches another attack on those pesky Internet Bampots who are setting the agenda while tired titles like the Daily Mail attempt to find a digital life raft.
In Scotland many issues are out of bounds for the mainstream such as MP Toby Perkins reminding the House of Commons that Rangers disappeared altogether and the possibility that a football referee might have a favourite club or one that him and his family utterly detest.
David Dickinson and Andrew Dallas are regularly involved in Celtic matches.
In England they have a sensible system, at the start of each season referees fill in a form in which they declare the club that they support and also any club that they might have an association with.
Such as Nick Walsh working Monday to Friday on the fitness and education of Murray Park starlets or John Beaton whooping it up in the Crown Bar in Bellshill after he has given Alfredo Morelos licence to boot lumps out of Celtic players all afternoon.
One form does the job and effectively sidesteps all of the obvious conflicts of interest.
There are always exceptions, during the summer no one was predicting issues between Luton Town and Nottingham Forest but as the EPL season reaches a close those two clubs are battling it out to avoid relegation.
When the officials for their match at Everton were announced Forest highlighted to the PGMOL the issue with Stuart Attwell, there were plenty of other options for VAR duty but the PGMOL stuck by their decision and it all kicked off after three good penalty shouts were overlooked with Forest losing 2-0.
The issue and outcry has given McGowan another excuse to voice his anger and contempt at what he claims are conspiracies, in fact they are FACTS!
Rather than discuss the dropping of Kevin Clancy and Willie Collum from matches involving the club from Ibrox Daily Mail readers are informed:
Making referees declare the team they grew up supporting is not a recipe for honesty, transparency and fairness. It’s pandering to people who see conspiracy in the cornflakes when the milk turns.
Fans of Celtic and Rangers think they know which team John Beaton, Willie Collum, David Dickinson and Kevin Clancy support. Whether they do or they don’t is neither here nor there.
They think they do and that’s good enough for some to demand the exclusion of a referee from games involving their team in future. Or, if Forest have their way, any game involving a team which raises any hint of a conflict of interest of any kind. Just because they are incapable of looking at any decision objectively, they assume everyone else is the same.
Marinakis was furious when his team were denied three penalties during a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park, with VAR Attwell choosing not to send referee Anthony Taylor to his pitchside monitor to review any of the decisions.
Scotland has seen a variation of this movie before. Collum declined to recommend a trip to the monitor for Nick Walsh for a handball by Celtic’s Alistair Johnston — and Rangers asked the SFA to take him off their games in future.
VAR Beaton intervened in a couple of contentious calls during Celtic’s defeat to Hearts last month and Brendan Rodgers accused both him and match referee Don Robertson of ‘incompetence’. While he stopped short of accusing them of bias, supporters felt no need to bite their tongue.
As McGowan is checking his Corn Flakes social media accounts are highlighting some uncomfortable issues surrounding Scotland’s elite referees.
Yesterday UEFA vindicated the Bampots when they announced 90 referees to be involved in the European Championships. Not one of Crawford Allan’s crew will be allowed near a meaningful match. Strange isn’t it?
