Beyond the Banter Years

 

                                           Beyond the Banter Years

The controversy over the refereeing decisions in the derby match in late December rumble on. Like most of you, I don’t take myself to seriously and enjoy a bit of light hearted football banter, but some of the online content this week can only be classified as unhinged. Some supporters of Rangers, a club who conceded their first SPFL penalty in two years this last week, are gunning for the referees of Scotland and making statements of such outrageous content that they would be laughable if they weren’t so wholly believed by some.

One cerebrally challenged fan stated that the Catholics of  Scotland (a phrase interchangeable with Celtic despite many of the club’s players and fans not being Catholics) were ‘unsettling a Presbyterian country to further their globalist agenda.’ This, he claimed started with the papal visit to Glasgow of Pope John Paul II in 1982, when the Pope, it seems, urged Catholics to take over the country. Now, if you’re following this line of thought, this nonsensical gibberish is meant to explain why Rangers didn’t get a penalty kick 42 years after the Pope’s visit!

We might laugh at such opinions, and many do, but there is a serious side to this staggeringly insane bullshit. As Rangers lobby the SFA to have certain referees taken off the list to handle their games, it plays into the victimhood narrative we’ve heard since 2012, when it seemed those who hate and were jealous of Rangers ‘relegated’ them out of sheer spite. This nonsense echoes still for some of their fans and a degree of selective evidence and confirmation bias is produced to back it all up. They won’t talk about the games when Goldson was saving the ball more than Jack Butland but they will go on about Alastair Johnston’s handball. They won’t mention not conceding a penalty in 2 years but will tell you Celtic get all the decisions. They won’t tell you when Willie Collum gave a penalty against Celtic in a derby when he had his back to the action and claimed he ’heard’ contact, but they will call him a liar and besmirch his name when they lose a match to Celtic.

An English friend said to me years ago that the trouble with Scottish football is that it is two bald men fighting over a comb. The sheer dominance of the big Glasgow clubs means that it is now almost 40 years since anyone else has won the title. This heightens the intensity and importance of their meetings beyond a normal local derby, and when you factor in the cultural and historic baggage of the clubs, it’s a recipe for some spikey tension.

The build up to a derby match is often marked by the usual rough banter, but the aftermath of one is usually far more acrimonious. Contentious decisions are pored over in microscopic detail and reasons for failure are seldom put down to the team being poor on the day. The refereeing and VAR team who covered the Celtic v Rangers match on December 30^th have been given a hard time over two contentious issues in particular; Rangers’ penalty claim after Alastair Johnston’s ‘hand ball’ and a push on David Turnbull in the box, subsequently called up as an offside decision. We can debate the merits of each decision until the cows come home, but the fact is it won’t change the outcome of the game.

Football fans are fiercely partisan towards their team and for many, any idea of objective debate is lost amid the tribal passions of the game. In Scotland, a land where being second is being nowhere, losing in these big games culminates in looking for reasons for the defeat which go beyond the team’s performance. Rangers entered the derby match in good form and the majority of their fans expected to win the match. The huge disappointment they felt was compounded by the feeling that they’d do well. As is often the case; disappointment is to be found in the gap between our expectations and reality.

The modern referee is burdened with guidelines and the theoretical support provided by VAR has turned out to be a hinderance at times. We saw a club president punch a referee in Turkish football recently after disagreeing with a decision. We see regular disrespect for referees on the field from players who pressure officials verbally, jostle them and make their job harder by engaging in blatant simulation. Every big match is followed by trial by social media as decisions are scrutinised by fans, many of whom wouldn’t know objectivity if it bit them on the ass.

We need to let referees speak out and explain their decisions in the days following matches. We might also consider having them declare their allegiances and not let them officiate at the games of their favourite club. They should be full time professionals and we should work to train them to the highest degree and get back to the days when they were allowed to officiate using common sense. The hand ball rule is a bloody mess and needs to return to the concept of ‘deliberate hand ball.’ Offside should be flagged immediately as sooner or later a player is going to be injured continuing a move which the assistant will flag as offside at its completion. VAR should be utilised sparingly to help decide key incidents and not be allowed to break the flow of the game for minutes at a time.

I’m not suggesting referees are perfect and I have often pointed out inconsistencies and downright baffling decisions in the past. Historically in Scotland, there have been good referees, mediocre referees and a small minority who for whatever reason have lacked impartiality. That being said, the hysteria around on social media at the moment needs to calm or some idiot may do something silly.

Amid all the swirling tides of recrimination and accusation, we should remember that without referees we have no game. Let’s help them improve the standard and restore the confidence of supporters who ask for consistency and transparency above all. The game we all love deserves that.