Let’s be objective, a bloodied Carl Starfelt sits on the ground and is shouting at the referee, clearly in an agitated manner. No one can see everything, least of all referees, so I am prepared to believe Alan Muir missed Carl being elbowed in the face, causing what police would call Actual Bodily Harm.
The assaulting arm was raised and clearly jerked back into the Celtic player’s face. The alternative would be that the ref saw the incident clearly and decided not to red card the Ross County player, or award a foul. It was a clear red card offence.
I have heard many referees speak about how they interpret events. They know they don’t see everything, so they look for clues as to what happened. When half the stadium and one entire team claims for a penalty in unison, they might not award it, but that’s because they didn’t see it, they usually know it should be a penalty, though. As a consequence, they close their ears to the protests and get play moving as quickly as possible.
The Rules of the Game permit referees to interpret events as they see fit. When a player is on the ground bloodied, and he reacts like a player who has been felled and bloodied, referees are permitted to interpret what happens next in context. They do this.
Dissent is a spectrum. I did not hear what Carl Starfelt said, but I know the context. Whatever he said, it deserved lateral from a referee who clearly knew he missed a violent incident.
The Second Yellow
Converse to popular belief, The Rules of the Game provide no sanctuary for the second yellow card. Practice is that a first yellow card can be picked up for a relatively minor infraction but the second yellow usually takes a clear and irrefutable breach. This is not a rule but it happens. It is in the same context of a defender committing a marginal foul inside the box that goes unpunished when the same incident would be penalised outside the box 100% of the time.
For his second yellow card, Carl did not grab or kick the Ross County player. There was no trip, there was no obstruction. Carl leaned into his opponent, who (as he did throughout the game) went down looking for a foul. I have watched the incident repeatedly. It was not a foul. It was never a yellow card. That the referee decided it reached the bar of a second yellow, elevates what happened here into the category of downright interesting.
The penalty
With 94 minutes on the clock, a shot struck a Ross County defender’s extended arm inside the box. A penalty should have been awarded. We have already covered the fact that referees do not see everything. Alan Muir was having one of those days. I am 100% sure he is not a cheat and had no intention to prejudice Celtic in last night’s game.
Here’s the thing, though, Alan Muir is refereeing Celtic less than two weeks after Crawford Allan, the SFA Head of Referee Operations, broke with good governance to re-referee a Celtic game in the media, telling whoever was interested that in his view, Celtic benefited from an incorrect decision.
We predicted we would see a backlash, Celtic would get nothing but the thin edge until everyone worked the anger out of their system. Crawford Allan has yet to apologise for breaking with protocol and stepping outside the remit of his professional competency. The ranks have closed, we are in for a torrid few weeks.
It was a huge game and result for Celtic. We’ll talk more about it later, but thought we should prioritise the governance issue first.
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Pheersy :- 1.14 – Another example of Ryan Christie derangement syndrome
Meanwhile in the real blog….
GM :- 1:19
You raise a very good point GM. Paul determined in the blog on Tuesday that Celtic are the lifeblood of Scottish football. Why therefore are we treated so unfairly? Surely he is demonstrating the opposite on today´s blog?
First of all I would say that I commend Paul for that affirmation and that I can also understand and respect his frustrations with the game in Scotland and with Scotland as a country. However it is simply a fact. If it wasn´t for Celtic, the Scottish League would be called the Northern Championship, run by the English FA, a couple of rungs under their Premiership….if a man called McCann had not come along.
So when did this being the lifeblood of Scottish football first manifest itself? One key moment for me was when the Celtic supporters were awarded international prizes for their behaviour at Seville in 2003, that is all the evidence that is required. The cynic in me would say UEFA and FIFA were leeching on our success, but the bigger picture is that we were world class at something! Scottish football had come a long way since the nadir of May the 10th at Hampden 1980. And along that 23 year journey there was another actor who deserves a mention. The Dundee United Fans received an award for their behaviour at the 1987 UEFA Cup final. The Celtic support have gone on, after that award, to forge links with the rest of the world ; Barcelona, Villareal, St Pauli and in a hundred other places, as well as the traditional support in Ireland, Australia , the US etc. That is another aspect to our lifeblood that paradoxically you don´t always observe in Scotland, where the anti celtic/anti -football bias from the chattering classes is cranked right up 24/7….they want to preserve their so-called bloodlines.
However, the transformation has also taken place on the field of play as well in the last 20 years. Strachan had a limited budget and depended more on the Maloneys and the McGeadys of this world and I felt Celtic accentuated its Scottishness ( I know Aiden played for Ireland! ) at a time when globalisation was in full flow. We were never parochial though and Norwegian Ronnie Delia came in and he still played the young talent. Some of those colts made it, some shone at Celtic, some went out to other clubs and those clubs benefitted from our players. Then the best in Scotland wanted to play for Celtic, irrespective of whom they supported as a kid and Scott Brown was the trailblazer here. It´s like our veins are now leading out to all the God-forsaken corners of Scotland to revive our mutual friend, the scottish game. Then we had Brendan Rodgers which showed us the level we can achieve when we get it right in the dugout.
The number of players connected to Celtic in the Euros squad was another indication that these are not the days when Jimmy McGrory got so few caps. Although the legend from the Garngad found the way to instigate the Hampden Roar, which is another part of our lifeblood.
I don´t see an easy way for Celtic FC to exercise this real hegemony in a benevolent manner in soundbite Scotland today, with more anti Celtic pundits than ever…and they never retire!!
We need sharper brains not suits in the boardroom because they are abandoning the support who are left to deal with all the refereeing bias in real time, hence the celebrations on the pitch at the end last night.
FIFA UEFA and all the other organisms permit wild, over the top celebrations from players on the field of play in CL matches with all the legions of subs running onto the park at times, why don´t they stop that. Totally unnecessary and irresponsible, because fans will behave the same.
In the short term we are in a language war, Ange can teach us all a lot in this field. Of course he is not going to talk about refereeing decisions, that is Bankier and co´s job!! He will adopt the Stein approach as someone posted earlier
“They can´t chalk them all off”