GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 13: Barry Ferguson the interim head coach / manager of Rangers during the UEFA Europa League 2024/25 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Rangers FC and Fenerbahce SK at Ibrox Stadium on March 13, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Barry Ferguson has joined the bandwagon slating Scottish refereeing.
It is a very recent issue which strangely seems to run parallel with David Dickinson being off duty for matches involving Danny Rohl’s team.
Dickinson is expected to be back on duty for at least one of the three SPFL fixtures before the split.
Rohl’s impressive run of results strangely coincided with appointments for the man from the Prince of Wales Lodge in Renfrew.
Between December 3 and February 4 Dickinson refereed seven SPFL Premiership matches. Four involved Rohl’s side, all four matches saw favourable penalty decisions go their way, two in the 2-2 draw at Tannadice. Kilmarnock’s Ibrox visit resulted in a red card and penalty going against them in the first five minutes.
Ferguson had no issues with refereeing at that stage.
IT’S FURIOUS FERGUSON TIME, AGAIN
Since Dickinson’s last match Rohl’s side has gone out of the Scottish Cup to Celtic and dropped SPFL points to Motherwell, Livingston and Celtic.
Ferguson was moaning on Go Radio with the Sun picking up on his appearance.
I think the standard of refereeing is well below the standard that is needed this season.
Some of the decisions – you’re talking about the Celtic one that John Beaton doesn’t see when Maeda is pulled down for the penalty.
I don’t understand why he doesn’t see it. He’s actually in a good position.
Barry and most of Scotland know exactly why Beaton ‘doesn’t see it’.
Beaton is a regular at the Crown Bar in Bellshill.
Even as a schoolboy his own passion in life was obvious to school-mates. It is reasonable to assume that the last 14 years have been a complete misery. Despite his lucrative sideline from refereeing.
Being forced to award Celtic an 88th minute penalty at Ibrox to equalise was one of his worst nightmares. Kevin Clancy was assistant VAR at that match.
On Saturday Clancy was VAR for the Celtic v Motherwell match and called the VAR review. Beaton prefers his long standing friend Steven McLean to be on VAR. Those two understand each other better.
Ferguson continued:
I’m not just talking about that game. I think we could go on here for hours and hours.
There are a number of games I’ve watched and some of the decisions are absolutely baffling.
Getting to the main point of his rant after a token mention of Brother Beaton, Ferguson added:
The handball rule is all over the place.
Listen, I’m not going from a Rangers point of view, in my opinion, that’s a penalty.
I think the arm is away from his body, I’ve seen them given, I’ve seen them not given, I just don’t know what to think anymore.
I go back to the Dujon Sterling handball [against Celtic], I don’t know what Duj can do there. Is he meant to jump with his arms by his side? That for me is unnatural.
‘Duj’ didn’t need to fly in recklessly with a boot towards Maeda’s head and an arm outstretched between the Celtic forward and the goal-line.
Ferguson, Kris Boyd, Andy Halliday and the script writers at BBC Scotland are all on a very clear mission.
THE LOYAL IBROX MESSENGERS
To present Scottish football in the same light as the toxic Ibrox message boards and social media accounts.
To follow the line being driven by their paranoid podcasters.
All of it can be detected back to Willie Collum. Not just a school-teacher but an RE teacher in a Catholic Secondary.
What they choose to overlook is that Collum was groomed from day one in refereeing by Hugh Dallas. A box-ticking exercise to show what a decent, grounded guy Dallas is.
That mask was removed with the Papal visit to Scotland in 2010.
With Collum as Head of Refereeing and Andrew Dallas as one of only two full time VAR officials Hugh Dallas remains the most influential figure in Scottish refereeing.
To an extent VAR has clipped his influence, that is what really frustrates Ferguson and others on the restricted Scottish media circuit.
Very surprised that he slagged Cheatin for not giving us the penalty in real time…
But his protection of ‘Duj’ is really fu**in comecial ali stuff of the highest order so it is…
He’s also right about the handball rule being ‘all over the place’
If it hits yer hand in the box it should be a penalty – End of story !
We can highlight all these selective narrative driven agendas, bias refereeing etc etc etc but we are preaching to the converted.What is required is people in positions of power and authority to push back and fight our corner but unfortunately we have an establishment board that only pays lip service to us while partaking in the soup
Editor: This site will never be deflected from the fact that those that happily signed off the Five/Six Way Agreement are the source of these issues.
And more power to you on that Joe.! Keep up the good fight.
Happy St Patrick’s Day HH ??
Now that the intellectual heavyweights are being brought in to criticise referees in Scotland, things must change, no? Such profound insights from an objective deep thinker, like Bazza, must have an impact. The “Dujon Effect” will be on the curriculum of philosophical and social science courses in many universities and places of higher learning throughout the world.
He’s also a brilliant economist, I’m told, and was tipped for a leading role in the IMF.
The whole point why they are crying is simple. The masons in black don’t give them their decisions anymore. Because they can’t. VAR mad it impossible for them. And now they complaining that they don’t get any favours anymore. Even tho they get still plenty.
The most I laught is with them showing most they had the most goals disallowed this season. Almost triple as much as the second team. This just proves, the masons in black, just let them get away with anything, but VAR doesn’t.