EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 25: Referee Steven McLean during a William Hill Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Celtic at Tynecastle Park, on January 25, 2026, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Martin O’Neill called out the inane question of a BBC reporter at his media conference today.
Celtic play Utrecht in the Europa League tomorrow night but the focus was very much on Sunday’s match away to Hearts.
Auston Trusty’s red card was one of the main talking points.
The Celtic defender was the victim of the John Beaton and Steven McLean tag team as a yellow card was upgraded to a red.
O’NEILL KNOWS THE LANDSCAPE
Beaton is a lifelong fan of clubs from Ibrox, McLean’s brother Brian was a former Rangers youth team and reserve prospect.
Those issues won’t get aired by the legacy media as they avoid the elephant in the room- Sunday’s match officials detest Celtic.
In Scotland the leading match officials are all from an area with 10 miles of the Glasgow boundary.
Nowhere else in full time European leagues does that happen.
?? “It was nice to get backing from a lot of referees who have refereed big matches”
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill was “disappointed” the appeal over Auston Trusty’s red card was dismissed ?? pic.twitter.com/E3ujY73jxd
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) January 28, 2026
BBC Scotland cover all sorts of trivia in football, they never mention that McLean’s brother was a Rangers player.
They never touch the subject of why referees from Bellshill and Wishaw are more likely to get appointed to top matches than thos from Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
The reporter at today’s media conference was afraid to come out with the obvious question.
He knows the answer, O’Neill knows the agenda.
On Sunday Celtic face more of the same against Falkirk.
Forever staunch David Dickinson will referee the match with Andrew Dallas on VAR.
Willie Collum selects the match officials as Head of Refereeing at the SFA.
Collum is keen to promote his own image as an honest, decent guy. The reality is far different.
BBC and Sky wouldn’t dream of posing the questions to Collum about the background of match officials.
O’Neill and today’s smirking BBC reporter both know that. That is why the question was called out as inane.
David ‘ yes it’s me ‘ Currie is the scoop ! A guy who thinks on his feet when on a ‘ live ‘ show with doozies like ‘ hold on to your hats , it’s going to be good ! ‘ And ‘ Martin , are you there ‘ when looking for a colleague? There are a number of reasons why we don’t see his boat on TV too often on the BBC Scottish version? Can you guess what they are ? This guy is not exactly in the late , great David Coleman’s class of excellence and briliance as a journalist and TV host …is he ? Oh and by the way ..he is a self confessed Tim too….Jeeeeez!
I wonder if they’ll pick up on the story of the Chermiti £13m bid being not true ?
They won’t Harold because they themselves are pathological liars !
I thought it was a lassie doing the asking!! The fuck ah no? Nothing