What can be done about the appalling standard of referees in Scotland?

A

Angrybluebear

Well-Known Member
Official Ticketer
Why is the standard so bad, we have out and out cheats;

Clancy, Collum, Robertson and Walsh.

Beaton and McLean who are scared to give us a decision.

Alan Muir is a balloon, Greg Aitken a bumbling buffoon.

Upcoming referees Dickinson, McDermid shouldn’t even be doing schoolboy games, they have no authority on the pitch and have to have VAR as a comfort blanket, both are absolutely clueless.

In the main they are all effectively letting VAR do their job, and not a very good one at that. I’ve hardly watched a game this season that hasn’t been a comedy of errors some more costly than others. In every other walk of life if you aren’t capable of doing your job you get moved on. Sad part in Scotland I see nothing to suggest we are trying to improve.
 
It says all you need to know that celtc’s biggest moan of the entire season was the ordering off of their player for booting an opponent in the face 6ft off the ground.

The recent VAR revision where we were revealed as the victims of the most wrong decisions against a team tells only a fraction of the story.
They don’t include decisions that VAR should have intervened and didn’t.

Like two stonewall penalties last night.
 
I am not on defending refs but it is a hard job and you make some good points but I don't think it is helped when pundits don't know the rules so throw a hissy fit when things happen that they don't think should happen and are refs not allowed to make mistakes? they are human players make mistakes all the time.
 
Refs in Scotland are cheats, not because some of them favour that mob, which they do, but because they are scared to apply the rules and laws of the game equally for everyone. They are cheating the game itself when refusing to do so. Celtc would have had 2 penalties last night, and would have been correct in receiving 2 penalties. That we didn't get any for 2 blatant infringements in the penalty area just confirmed the cheating.
 
A combination of the heads of Scottish football being inept, comfortable and taking a healthy wage for little effort, and Tims being placed in every facet of authority means we lost this war a long time ago.

There is no appetite to make Scottish football stronger or more marketable, so don’t expect change for the better.

Also, the chat of bad refereeing from the dark side and the media fair died down in recent weeks didn’t it. What a coincidence.
 
Shengus Malengus said:
It says all you need to know that celtc’s biggest moan of the entire season was the ordering off of their player for booting an opponent in the face 6ft off the ground.

The recent VAR revision where we were revealed as the victims of the most wrong decisions against a team tells only a fraction of the story.
They don’t include decisions that VAR should have intervened and didn’t.

Like two stonewall penalties last night.
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There is no doubt Beaton played the game with Robertson at Tynecastle when celtic got beat there recently. He forced Robertson in to making correct decisions Robertson simply did not want to make. He exposed Robertson for being a cheat. However the narrative after the game all came from Rodgers calling out Beaton.

Every decision made in that game was made by Robertson. I know the independent var panel said both penalties were wrong but Sky Ref Watch did make a good point in that Hearts penalty was in keeping with other decisions made in Scotland so there was a consistency.

Robertson should have been demoted after Tynecastle for not being fit for purpose but no is allowed to carry on regardless, all because Rodgers called out the wrong man.

Remember this ?

www.thescottishsun.co.uk

Rodgers warns Robertson one more mistake could cost him top-flight career

BRENDAN RODGERS has warned ref Don Robertson one more mistake could cost him his top-flight career. The Celtic boss has received an apology from SFA referees’ chief John Fleming in the wake of last…
www.thescottishsun.co.uk www.thescottishsun.co.uk

How many mistakes can Robertson get away with ?
 
I have witnessed some of the up coming refs at tier 6 and above ,, dearie me described as “ Collum “ clones by some
 
Thommo2006 said:
I am not on defending refs but it is a hard job and you make some good points but I don't think it is helped when pundits don't know the rules so throw a hissy fit when things happen that they don't think should happen and are refs not allowed to make mistakes? they are human players make mistakes all the time.
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It is a hard job for the Refs but when VAR is installed to help these guys make decisions and then don’t apply the rules correctly themselves, then hell mend them.

VAR didn’t do its job last night, simple as that and that’s what makes a mockery of the officiating in Scotland.

Pundits are only there for comment and to draw people in with stupidity and controversy.

Human error is supposed to be negated by the use of VAR so when it’s not implemented properly then what is the actual point?

Also, a huge bugbear of mine last night was that big lad Sylla. How on earth he left the field as a sub without being at least booked was staggering in the extreme. That was human error that can’t be helped by VAR and that’s a problem as well. The referee clearly set out to give Rangers absolutely nothing last night and it showed.
 
I agree to an extent that refereeing is not the easiest job even although they now have 2 assistants on the lines one in the technical area and a team on VAR which I assume stands for Validations Against Rangers.

However they do not half make the job difficult for themselves. Apply the laws of the game evenly for both sides over a 90 minute period. Repeat this in the next game you are officiating and the next again. If it is a foul for one team then it is a foul for the other, stop trying to implement an unofficial handicap system.

Always remember it is a customer based sport and try to assist in providing a product that is enjoyable to watch. We’re not paying to see you perform. We are there to watch football so stop allowing teams to employ black arts that are designed to frustrate and kill a game.

Oh and btw when you speak to a keeper for wasting time and he does it 10 times after that, he is taking the piss out of you. Same goes with the player you have warned twice about persistent fouling and then you speak to him a third time without booking him.
 
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Sticky Fingers said:
It is a hard job for the Refs but when VAR is installed to help these guys make decisions and then don’t apply the rules correctly themselves, then hell mend them.

VAR didn’t do its job last night, simple as that and that’s what makes a mockery of the officiating in Scotland.

Pundits are only there for comment and to draw people in with stupidity and controversy.

Human error is supposed to be negated by the use of VAR so when it’s not implemented properly then what is the actual point?

Also, a huge bugbear of mine last night was that big lad Sylla. How on earth he left the field as a sub without being at least booked was staggering in the extreme. That was human error that can’t be helped by VAR and that’s a problem as well. The referee clearly set out to give Rangers absolutely nothing last night and it showed.
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It seems like any goal we score is then trawled by VAR to look for something, anything, to chalk it off.

As for Sylla, he just fouled the entire first half, especially targeting Cantwell, with nothing done by the ref.
 
That rat last night allowed Sylla to get away with 3 or 4 fouls that were all yellow card worthy individually never mind totting up.
He actually says to him 1 more then lets him away with another 3, why even pretend to apply the rules ffs.
I get the likeness to Collum, the new inbreds seem to have that superiority complex, wearing tops that are 3 sizes too wee, trying to death stare at players (ours mainly), shouting at players (ours mainly) who are just asking them questions or pointing something out. Funnily enough when our opponents run up to them, or scream at them, or throw their arms about in a rage, refs do nothing, different story with us.
 
It all comes from the top, which in Scotland means mediocrity, no money and no one prepared to change
 
Teams have realised that they can be as physical as they want with us and not get booked and sometimes not even give away freekicks. They can then fall over at every opportunity and are given soft free kicks.

It's been particularly noticeable the last few months, especially at Ibrox where every game seems to follow the same pattern of decisions. Several different refs are not applying the rules evenly.
 
Referee training school, 1 thou cannot send off Septic player, 2 thou can award penalties against opposition players against Septic, 3 thou can allow diving/feigning injury of Septic players, 4 thou can allow Septic player to step on/assault opposition players, 5 thou can chalk off legitimate goals against Septic, 6 thou can overlook any brown envelopes? 7 thou can put behind you any allegiances to Septic, 8 thou will accept all dodgy decisions your brother linesman may make against opposition, 9 thou will enforce our superior brother Liewells instruction, 10 thou will inforce the most important rule of all, thou shall make it near impossible for Rangers to win against Septic, here are your
Ten Commandments!

P.s. childish yes, but ?
 
Thommo2006 said:
I am not on defending refs but it is a hard job and you make some good points but I don't think it is helped when pundits don't know the rules so throw a hissy fit when things happen that they don't think should happen and are refs not allowed to make mistakes? they are human players make mistakes all the time.
Click to expand...

Not just pundits it's fans as well to be honest and it's why when debates on VAR for example always come up they become so tedious.

The refs are extremely poor but they don't get any support from the SFA and not being full time doesn't help either.
 
Not sure there is much can be done these are the refs Celtic are happy with their board must be pissing their pants after every old firm. It might be an idea to stop suggesting it is an appalling standard and that refs are crap, they are all biased and desperate to protect their career they obviously feel being fair is risky and cannot afford to be impartial.
 
Bknowe said:
Its been the case for the last decade or so.

The decline in Scottish Refereeing standards has been so poor that they barely get European games now.

Then when they do you hear of some calamitous error that they've made.
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They dont have to be at the euros or doing CL to be good referees.

Butland aint going and he has been a terrific signing.
 
The officials are so poor because they are shit scared to give decisions against them/in our favour, due to the amount of criticism/pressure they’ll receive from media and Celtic placemen alike.
Until the SFA addresses this or other clubs start kicking up a stink, nothing will change.
 
Nah. Lets not generalise here.

While the overall standard is low there are two massive issues.

- False decisions benefitting Celitc
- False decisions penalising Rangers

Referees are worth an 9-12 point swing for them EVERY season now.

Even the VAR review mob have said there are 5 wrong decisions against us (before Matt O'Daley's dive penalty at the weekend)- how many were in draws/losses and cost points?

And that's before we look at ones for other clubs where Celtic were beneficiaries.
 
I was looking through some detailed stats on refs and could easily see statistical proof that when Clancy refs us his behaviour changes, he gives fouls and cards against us at a much higher rate than he does in any other games.

Collum also basically just bucks all trends in every direction.

Oddly they are both actually harsher on the bheasts than the rest of the refs. If you take the two of them out of it then, over the last 5 years, Celtic average something like 0.6 yellow cards per home games (excluding games v us).
 
The cheating accusations are tiresome. It’s unlikely we have refs that are actively cheating against Rangers. Even if there were, there’s probably others who would be biased in favour of us.

They are poor because they are part time.
 
Scottish football is corrupt to the core and its not just football. Look at the media such as BBC Scotland, Radio Clyde, the Daily Record and many others.

Then look st plod and the judiciary.

The majority are being treated very poorly and in many walks of life including Scottish football, integrity has been replaced with agenda.
 
Scottish refs are far far too lenient. They let players get away with fouls that would get a yellow card most other places.

The SPFL/SFA should be doing some kind of referee exchange scheme with the the FA in England, where Scottish refs go down to England and learn from English refs. English refs are not perfect but they're a lot better than Scottish ones.

In an ideal scenario the SPFL and PGMOL could combine their refereeing pool so that Scottish refs can do games in England and English refs can ref in Scotland.

That way we would have enough refs to bring in the same anti-bias rules that they have in England. It is so tin pot that bheast supporting refs are reffing games that involve the bheasts, that would never be allowed in England for obvious reasons.
 
Maestro72 said:
The cheating accusations are tiresome. It’s unlikely we have refs that are actively cheating against Rangers. Even if there were, there’s probably others who would be biased in favour of us.

They are poor because they are part time.
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Not every referee is a cheat mate. I'd say only 2 are.

The rest are feart to do their jobs. Being part time doesn't prevent you from booking a player whose been going around kicking everything in the opposing jersey, or seeing with your own eyes that a player had dived after multiple replays at the VAR screen. Or even awarding stonewall penalties that you've seen but are afraid to give due to a potential media backlash.
 
Maestro72 said:
The cheating accusations are tiresome. It’s unlikely we have refs that are actively cheating against Rangers. Even if there were, there’s probably others who would be biased in favour of us.

They are poor because they are part time.
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The season is just about over and you will struggle to come up with a game where Rangers were lucky, or that Celtic were on the wrong end of decisions, what makes more sense is that they are pretty good refs but very cautious and careful with their decisions. I am not sure why there is anyone left that has not worked it out but i suppose talk of bias always causes a lot of panic.
 
Blue Cowboy said:
Our refs are not fully professional like the English premier league. It’s more of a part time thing up here. All down to money.
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looking at some of the decisions being made in England, i am not sure being full time and paying them lots more money would makes a lot of difference
 
The referees are simply commensurate with the standard of the league I’m afraid. We don’t have any European class teams (except us) so why would the referees be any different?

It’s also very, very hard, just think about the view they have of things for a start, they’re at eye level.

Couple a hard job with low ability and this is the result.
 
Blatant two handed push on the bold Cyriel last night - no penalty. Blatant dive by the tink on Saturday - penalty even after reviewing it. They don’t even bother trying to cover it up anymore.
Snide comments from Sutton and Rogers set the narrative and the rest of the country falls into line. Do any other club’s supporters moan?
 
Angrybluebear said:
Why is the standard so bad, we have out and out cheats;

Clancy, Collum, Robertson and Walsh.

Beaton and McLean who are scared to give us a decision.

Alan Muir is a balloon, Greg Aitken a bumbling buffoon.

Upcoming referees Dickinson, McDermid shouldn’t even be doing schoolboy games, they have no authority on the pitch and have to have VAR as a comfort blanket, both are absolutely clueless.

In the main they are all effectively letting VAR do their job, and not a very good one at that. I’ve hardly watched a game this season that hasn’t been a comedy of errors some more costly than others. In every other walk of life if you aren’t capable of doing your job you get moved on. Sad part in Scotland I see nothing to suggest we are trying to improve.
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And the agenda is already being set to appoint Collum as head of referees, now that’s a disaster waiting to happen for us.
 
The Canny Man said:
Blatant two handed push on the bold Cyriel last night - no penalty. Blatant dive by the tink on Saturday - penalty even after reviewing it. They don’t even bother trying to cover it up anymore.
Snide comments from Sutton and Rogers set the narrative and the rest of the country falls into line. Do any other club’s supporters moan?
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It doesn’t help when you have Kenny Miller saying ‘nah, not enough in it for me, it’s risky putting your hands on someone’s back, but not for me”.
 
Standards are driven from the top. The new head of refereeing needs to be a fresh, young, non-scottish appointment, so they can implement new ideas and drive higher standards.
 
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bkerr72 said:
Not just pundits it's fans as well to be honest and it's why when debates on VAR for example always come up they become so tedious.

The refs are extremely poor but they don't get any support from the SFA and not being full time doesn't help either.
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Are you or Greig ever going to tell us the ref that is crap and which game we seen some errors going Rangers way ?

Any game, old firm, cup ties games v dross, any fixture will be fine.

Walsh good ref and Robertson, McLean and Collum at the top of the game for about 20 years or something, even Clancy that is very unpopular i would not say he is hopeless.

And if they are crap refs why is it not all over the media every day with ex players saying the standards need to improve ?
 
HarryBosch said:
Standards are drive from the top. The new head of refereeing needs to be a fresh, young, non-scottish appointment, so they can implement new ideas and drive higher standards.
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So the appointment ticks............let me see.............none of the requirements!
I despise Scottish football!
 
Angrybluebear said:
Why is the standard so bad, we have out and out cheats;

Clancy, Collum, Robertson and Walsh.

Beaton and McLean who are scared to give us a decision.

Alan Muir is a balloon, Greg Aitken a bumbling buffoon.

Upcoming referees Dickinson, McDermid shouldn’t even be doing schoolboy games, they have no authority on the pitch and have to have VAR as a comfort blanket, both are absolutely clueless.

In the main they are all effectively letting VAR do their job, and not a very good one at that. I’ve hardly watched a game this season that hasn’t been a comedy of errors some more costly than others. In every other walk of life if you aren’t capable of doing your job you get moved on. Sad part in Scotland I see nothing to suggest we are trying to improve.
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Personally I would get rid of VAR as it is killing the game and atmosphere! I was at Irish cup final a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed the game not realising var wasn't being used. The game was refereed well and just flowed without any problems, players accepted the refs decisions and got on with it....just a shame about the result !!!
 
I’ll tell you what won’t help. Appointing Willie Collum as head of refereeing. Thankfully I can’t see that happening anytime soo…

Ah for fucks sake.
 
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