The job of referee has a kind of inverse relationship between popularity and career progress. Willie Collum has been at the centre of this season’s three major controversies. He was referee on two occasions when his assistants failed to notice Celtic conceded a goal in crucial league games against Rangers and Hearts (on each occasion the ball crossed the line by inches and remained there for a small fraction of a second).
There is very little a ref can do when his assistant doesn’t flag when the ball crosses the goal line, as we all know, but Collum still suffered reputational damage from some who simply blamed him for being in charge when ‘goals’ against Celtic were not awarded by assistant referees.
It takes a brave decision for a ref to award an injury time penalty for a team losing by a goal in a cup final. As we noted yesterday, Anthony Stokes clearly had his ankle clipped when clean through with Cammy Bell to beat on Sunday while the Kilmarnock defender never came close to the ball. This was a foul any day of the week, but having been in charge when Celtic benefited from assistant referee decisions, Collum booked Stokes instead of awarding a penalty.
This incident was almost identical to Collum’s decision not to award Celtic a penalty in the infamous game away to Hamilton Accies in 2011. With five minutes of the game remaining Niall McGinn was tripped inside the box but Collum booked the player.
The offside rule was subject to a new and unique interpretation that day. Hamilton ‘scored’ from a set piece with a player alone inside the six yard box who jumped over the ball. He was in an offside position by several yards and stood in front of Fraser Forster before allowing the ball to pass under him. Collum also sent off James Forrest for blocking a clearance in an incident which caused a Hamilton player to kick his boot.
All of this followed the infamous incident at Celtic Park when despite looking the other way, Collum awarded Rangers a penalty when Kirk Broadfoot stumbled in the vicinity of Daniel Majstorovic.
Without enjoying the light of robust critical analysis of refereeing decisions that happens in most other countries I’m not sure where we go with any of this. Celtic Quick News called both ‘goal’ incidents against Rangers and Hearts as assistant referee mistakes so it is only appropriate we record Mr Collum’s significant mistakes when refereeing Celtic, while we ponder the formula for career progression among Scotland’s referees.
I know we covered the issue of Duff and Phelps needing to talk-up any possibility of nullifying Ticketus ownership of future season tickets, Craig Whyte’s security over Ibrox of HMRC being prepared to accept a few pennies in the pound (before HMRC issued a rare statement about the important of paying your tax, “football club or not”), so apologies for repeating myself, but….
Duff and Phelps have agreed no deal with HMRC. Ticketus retain ownership of future season tickets and the recent court challenge appears to offer little threat, while Craig Whyte retains his security. In addition, Duff and Phelps have received no offer for Rangers with terms which are within their control.
So, apart from having no offers they can accept, no stadium to sell, no control over future season ticket sales, no agreement with HMRC and having absolutely no idea what they will do when player contracts revert to their full value on 1 June, Duff and Phelps job is pretty easy.
Right now they need to keep all their plates in the air. The very least we should do is cut them some slack as they endeavour to work the angles.
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macanbheatha
Nice one!
Great day for it, spring and all that good stuff.
Best wishes to your lil lday.
HH!
hamiltontim
“I couldn’t understand him!” Love that.
hamiltontim on 20 March, 2012 at 14:26 said:
If the Mothers win on Saturday we can expect the first ‘fair’ referring performance in a Glasgow derby since 1888.
Errrrmmmm why ?
Hail HAil
Kojo on 20 March, 2012 at 14:30 said:
Incredible.
A 21 point lead in the championship, a League cup final (defeat) and the semi finals of the Scottish Cup and we’re described as “not very good”.
There’s a world of difference between “not very good” and maybe finding out that you’re not quite as good as you thought you were Kojo. Be careful you’re not confusing the two.
The ‘Know Nothings’ was a nineteenth century political movement that harboured anti-Catholic sentiments.
Not too different then from the present crop of Scottish know nothings.
As the debate on the penalty issue runs on, some say there was no contact, some say there was little contact and some say there was full contact, what I would like to know is this, the Kilmarnock player made an attempt to tackle from behind and regardless of contact or not, I thought it was illegal to make a tackle from behind so why no decision against the defender.
quonno – Say what you like about Bill the Butcher, you can’t take anything away from that moustache. (thumbsup)
No later than 8 weeks after the company enters administration, the administrator must make a statement setting out proposals for achieving the purpose of the administration or explaining why they cannot be achieved. The proposals may include a voluntary arrangement or a compromise or arrangement with creditors or shareholders
3 weeks today is deadline day for Duff + Duffer
philvisreturns on 20 March, 2012 at 14:42 said:
Sorry. Have I missed something. Bill the Butcher reference over my head. Please enlighten.
alex thomson now saying sfa admitting they done no due dilligence on whyte,white
ticgaz on 20 March, 2012 at 13:46 said:
Paul67 ,
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 20 March, 2012 at 12:37
Could you send me Awe_Naws email address ?
Thanks
………
Ticgaz, send you’re email request to celticquicknews@gmail.com
V
Gollum held his precious he loved putting it to his lips
The shape of it aroused him as he wiped away the drips
The power of the whistle how he loved to hear it blow
To have others at his mercy aroused him down below
Gollum felt a shiver as he pulled out another card
Not looking at the incident, paying scant regard
The seduction of all this power rushing to his head
A basic orgasm for yellow, multiple spurts if it’s red
Gollum became impotent found only Celtic would do
Struggled to get excited with other teams he knew
The application of his blowing often made him out of puff
The sad life of a referee who found perversion was enough
quonno – I don’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’. (thumbsup)
James Forrest
Could you sell some magazines outside the ground at home games? Might need a traders license however, or try the unofficial Celtic shop in the Barras. They might be willing to sell some magazines on your behalf. If you offer them a pound a copy they might be happy.
Mort
philvisreturns on 20 March, 2012 at 14:45 said:
I had evidently mistakenly believed that it was Doberman who knew nuttin.
Thanks.
Very good serenity,
Glad you are back
quonno – Oh, a wise guy, eh? (thumbsup)
HT,
that game (if memory serves) was April 1987.
Remember it very well given that it was the first time I was allowed to attend a Celtic v huns game!
We did indeed win 3-1 with 2 pens (down at the huns end) from Choccy and Owen did score that belter after the mix-up with nicholl and woods.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Did the site crash for a while there? I lost access for about 5 minutes.
Chairbhoy on 20 March, 2012 at 12:48 said:
Thanks for that – do you have the link to the original article from the Daily Mail with all the examples please?
“How did they do this?”
What we cannot yet prove, but is suggested by Dougie/Dougie-gate, is that performance evaluation and career progression depended on ensuring the “right” outcome (positive decisions for Rangers, and for Celtic’s opponents) and not evidencing “wrong” outcomes (negative decisions for Rangers, and for Celtic’s opponents).
Hence the most skillful game managers who ensured a positive outcome for Rangers would be rewarded with Cup Finals and Semi’s, big derbies and recommendations to UEFA (Thomson, Collum, McDonald, Dougal, Murray).
Next Action: A correlation between the list of referees delivering “honest mistake” and their appearances in prestige games.
Look at how referees are treated in England. Make a high profile mistake in an EPL game and off to the Championship you go. Look at obvious mistakes in SPL games, and see that those most proficient in engineering those decisions to benefit Rangers, get rewarded instead (see above).
Referees who either show no inclination either way, or heaven forbid perform outside the parameters demanded by the dog whistle (I liked that) are the ones demoted (or perhaps they made an error in the e.g. Dundee Utd vs St Mirren game, to be made an example of).
Next Action: examples of EPL referees being demoted. Examples of SPL refs being demoted compared to the exponents of “honest mistakes.
If the decision benefits Rangers / harms Celtic then the media will back you up – see the Stuart Dougal piece in the Herald today for a prime example. If you get a decision “wrong” then watch out – media driven hell awaits. Look at the endless columns on TV evidence / technology as Celtic benefited from “goals” not being spotted. But of course this wouldn’t influence behaviour, right?
Next Action: examples of SPL refs hounded by the media in comparison to the response to referees executing on the “honest mistakes”.
This conspiracy will either be uncovered by a whistle-blower (and see what happened to Craven – career suicide) or documentary evidence will emerge that Dallas had sown up the role of referee appointer and assessor to such an extent that there is no concept of checks and balances, dual control or peer review. Altered match reports suggesting that decisions beneficial (net/net) to Rangers were not marked down would do it, especially if there are a few of them. We’ve talked of this for a while now and none have been forthcoming.
Other circumstantial evidence is the sheer volume and audacity of “honest mistakes” afflicting Mowbray’s team especially, once Walter Smith had sounded the alarm regarding the Banks’ running of the club.
Also the alignment of the “honest mistakes” with Hugh Dallas reign in charge (June 2009 – Nov 2010). Dallas had the means (governance over referees), the motive (hatred of Celtic (coin incident), hatred of Catholicism (email incident), working within a cultural organization of anti-Celtic and pro-Rangers(Peat, Farry etc etc)) and the opportunity (all refereeing appointments, assessment etc are in house to the SFA and not independent in any way).
In light of the lengths the SFA and Rangers have gone to assure cups and titles, to bend the disciplinary processes, to avoid social tax responsibilities and avoid acting in the good faith viz-a-viz their peers (as demanded by the Articles of Association), is it really such a stretch to believe that influencing the outcome of football matches through refereeing was not part of the culture? Football is a low scoring game. One decision can have a huge impact where titles are decided by 1 point or a few goals.
Our hope is that once the lid comes off the SFA’s secret world to look at the governance of player registrations, some data will come to light. More likely, once the huns start stabbing each other to get to the life rafts, who knows what collateral damage there will be?
We must never forget this.
HH
TLK
bold
My experimenting with bold tagging was an epic fail. Apologies.
HH
TLK
And we’re back.
Something new from Phil Mac:
Rangers Are “the first domino”
Gordon_J – Are they chappin’? (thumbsup)
Talking earlier about the physical side of Sunday’s game at Poundstretchers, Rangers are sitting second top of the league – disciplinary league with:
53 yellow cards
5 red cards
Lafferty sitting on one yellow away from a ban – to be awarded on Sunday.
philvisreturns,
I’m surprised that you are so au fait with working class culture. I would have thought polo was more your thing?
TLK @ 15.11 brilliant post!
Bobby Evans Superstar – The great thing about Rangers is how they take turns to foul opposition players, so as to spread the yellow cards around and minimise the chances of any one Ranger getting sent off, while trying to get their opponents sent off injured.
He’s such a loveable cheeky chappie, that Ally McCoist.
Oh how we’ll miss the dignity of it all… (thumbsup)
Celtic 3 Rangers 1.
1987
155 arrests.
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1987-04-04%3A+Celtic+3+-+1+Rangers%2C+Premier+Division
Rubicon
Did the sheriff officers actually visit though? I thought that was some sort of crazed Timmy fantasy dreamt up by internet bampots, or if it did happen, a conspiracy of rhabid republicans that was best treated with dignified disdain and ambivalence by all true blues. No?
philvisreturns
Indeed – I remember too well the thumbs up Sally gave to Bougy when he took out McManus at Ipox a few year back.
“I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry
Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em all around
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam
in her eye
It’s interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry
You don’t really need to find out what’s going on
You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re stiff
Kick ’em all around
Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry
We can do “The Innuendo”
We can dance and sing
When it’s said and done we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that Crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!
Just back from the hospital in Denia with a smile on my face – the wife’s scan shows a new bhoy is on the way. I’m 46 years of age and come August will become a dad for the first time – is there a CQN manual for newbies?
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon on 20 March, 2012 at 15:21 said:
philvisreturns,
I’m surprised that you are so au fait with working class culture. I would have thought polo was more your thing?
—————————-
Philvis keeps abreast of popular culture by reading Ok magazine in between changing horses at the guards club [thumbs up]
The Lizard King/Paul67/BRT&H
Three great posts this afternoon.
Congrats Deniabhoy!..dont worry they come with a manual!…regards and best wishes for the forthcoming event HH
Gordon_J – Re: Polo
I don’t eat mints, but if I did, I wouldn’t go for the sanctimonious holy ones. (thumbsup)
philvisreturns
I’ve noticed that as well. If I didn’t know any better I’d say it almost looks like they plan it.
DeniaBhoy on 20 March, 2012 at 15:26 said:
Dirty Bhoy……………..best of luck to all three of you.