Scotland’s Referees in the Spotlight—Again
The Full Scottish with Brian P. Dunleavy
There’s an old saying in North American sports that if both sides in a contest are equally mad at the official(s), it means they’re doing a good job.
We’ve never quite bought into that idea because there’s another way to look at it: If everyone is angry, that means the officials have gotten a lot wrong—for both sides.
In Scotland, of course, referees usually face accusations of bias for or against one club or another. Frankly, the SFA has been its own worst enemy in this regard, by employing officials who have displayed a clear lack of judgement in showing their allegiances publicly.
However, to be fair, the poor judgement of Scottish officials goes beyond that. We watch several other leagues regularly, including those in South America, where matches are often barely controlled chaos in the best of times, and the refereeing on Scotland is well below standard.
From our perspective, it often seems the officials in top-flight matches are afraid to make calls for fear of becoming the story of a match, particularly when one of the combatants is Celtic or Rangers. Of course, when either of the big two is involved, the spotlight will always shine brighter. All decisions will be placed under a microscope and replayed again and again.
In the end, though, by not making certain calls, they end up being the story anyway.
That’s because armchair pundits will have their say after seeing split-second moments in super slow-motion. We’re not defending referees here. Far from it. There’s plenty to fault them for—in fact, we’d argue that by allowing obvious credibility issues to fester, the SFA has opened itself, and its matchday officials, to all sorts of allegations, some legitimate, others not.
In other words, by not addressing the obvious problems more proactively, it has made the credibility of its officials an issue. And many of them fail to hold up to the added scrutiny.
The latest example occurred Thursday during a match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park. Players and staff on both sides were enraged with the officials after the match because obvious calls were missed. For Hearts, which lost 1-0 on a disputed goal by Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi, who was “marginally offside,” according to some pundits in attendance, it was much harder to overlook borderline calls.
The same would have been true for Celtic had the scoreline been reversed.
“People say it’s tight, you’re either onside or offside, the linesman has got a brilliant view of it,” Hearts manager Robbie Neilson told the media after the match. “He’s got to give it. It’s Scottish football, it’s what happens. We’re outdone by a very, very poor official.”
Such resignation on the state officiating should raise alarm within the SFA.
However, if history tells us anything, it’s unlikely things will change.
