Demonise Celtic and fawn SFA Ogilvie

You’re victim of a costly refereeing failure, what do you do?  Celtic wrote to the SFA for clarification.    There was no demand for censure of the officials or a ban for the Inverness player.

In 2011, when the SFA were victim of a costly refereeing error against Czech Republic, Association president, Campbell Ogilvie, took it upon himself to write to Uefa demanding the referee who failed to correctly interpret a penalty incident, be marked down, and that the player who dived is excluded from the remainder of the competition.  The Daily Record glowingly reported the actions here.

The SFA set a precedent: after being hard done by, demand action against the referee.  Don’t just let supervisory processes take their course.  This is the standard set by Campbell Ogilvie.

“An SFA spokesman” also made it his business to brief a grateful media on the actions of Mr Ogilvie.  This was a coordinated campaign by the SFA against a match official, as well as an attempt to circumvent process.

Is this fair enough?  Well, I don’t remember an outcry at the time.  A referee made a bad mistake in an important game.  Standards should have been higher.  The SFA would have been within their rights to say so, although they had no business trying to influence referee supervisory processes.  If only we had a competent administrator who would realise this.

Celtic are within their rights to say standards should be higher now and instead of trying to mislead by suggesting no one in the ground was convinced Celtic should have had a penalty, the SFA should acknowledge that standards can and must improve.

Saying that would shut Celtic up and give them nothing to MORE complain about.  Instead of being concerned by the actions of SFA referee chief Fleming.

What you will note is the utter contempt shown for your club by many for writing a letter asking for clarification, even from those who lauded Campbell Ogilvie for demanding a referee is demoted.  Celtic are the last superpower standing after the Long Cold War, but we’ll always be the enemy to some.  We may well win the next 30 league titles, but as long as Campbell ‘What school did you go to?’ Ogilvie is in charge at Hampden, you’ll know what we’re up against.

Great three points last night.  Particularly delighted for Gary Mackay-Steven.  He, and Stuart Armstrong, are still finding their feet at Celtic.  It will be next season before we see the best of them (think Stefan Johansen circa April 2014), but the early signs are encouraging.

Big Virgil had a better record from free kicks than we had from penalties a couple of seasons ago!

Thanks to everyone who registered for the Foundation’s Ben Nevis climb yesterday, trying to get as many confirmed before tomorrow as possible.  It’s on 13 June.  Last year participants raised £45k, which fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless and aided others in need.  Sign up here.