The burden of proof

 

The burden of proof

The furore over Celtic winning the SPFL again tells you much about prevailing attitudes towards the dominant club in Scottish football. I get it that most folk outside the Celtic support and maybe Hibs, wanted Hearts to win the title but some of the narratives being spun about the match at Celtic Park were so blatantly fictious they could have been written by JK Rowling. There were claims of ‘assaults’ on Hearts players which TV pictures and thousands of video phones failed to capture. The burden of proof is on the accuser, as yet I see none. There were even dark mutterings about a ‘missing’ minute and claims the game had never officially ended. This was blown out of the water by the SFA releasing the end of game audio which clearly states the game had been ended by the referee on 98 minutes and 7 seconds and that Hearts coach Derek McInnes was happy with that. Hearts leaving the stadium still in their kit was painted as if they were the beleaguered survivors of Rourke’s Drift escaping the Zulu hoards. In reality, they had no stomach for listening to the celebrations at Celtic Park and likely beat the traffic by heading for the M8 while the Celtic support was still in the stadium.

We were then treated to ludicrous claims that Celtic somehow cheated because certain VAR calls didn’t go Hearts way. Do Celtic pick the referees? Do Celtic make the VAR calls?  Of course not. Plenty of VAR calls this season were to the detriment of Celtic and when that happened, they were told to get on with it and stop moaning. Just a fortnight earlier, Hibs scored a goal against Celtic after their player clearly contacted the ball with his arm. The late penalty decision at Fir Park which saw Celtic snatch a late winner also came under the spotlight. There were some ludicrous statements made by pundits suggesting that if the ball hit his hand, it would have dropped in front of the offending player. That the ball hit his hand and his head didn’t seem to occur to folk more interested in stirring up a fuss and gaining clicks for their failing newspapers. Even the SFA’s ‘Key match incident’ (KMI) panel which reviewed the decision was split on what occurred. As Kris Boyd said at Easter Road after Hibs scored against Celtic despite the video showing the ball contacting the player’s arm; ‘we’ve got to trust the officials.’

The disputes over VAR suggest that Scotland needs to invest in the top-range system with more cameras in key positions. We could also look to fund full time referees in this country in order to help the standard of officiating improve.  FIFA has appointed 52 referees, 88 assistant referees, and 30 video match officials for the2026 World Cup and none of them are Scottish. Players don’t help officials with their theatrics on the field. The Hearts penalty claim at Fir Park when a defender seemed to contact the foot of a Hearts player in the box wasn’t helped by the player rolling over and over as if he’d been shot. Don’t get me wrong, I’d have been shouting for a penalty if that was my team, but it makes the referee’s job harder when players go down and over react to the slightest contact.

It is totally understandable that most of the footballing world wanted Hearts to win this title. I get that, but you can’t use their failure to do so as an excuse to jettison reason and look for some grand conspiracy against them. The league wasn’t lost by referees, VAR calls or missing seconds at the end of the last game. It was lost when Hearts drew with Livingston and lost to Aberdeen, Hibs, St Mirren and Kilmarnock. They more than held their own with the big Glasgow clubs but one win in their final seven away games was what cost them their chance of glory. I hope they come back for more next season, as Scottish football needs more teams pushing for the honours. Competition drives up standards and the likes of Hearts, Aberdeen and Hibs have failed miserably for too long. I genuinely hope that changes.

All the obfuscation and the tsunami of unfounded ‘facts’ has somehow sought to cast Celtic as the bad guys in all of this end of season hysteria. Yes, fans should stay in the stands and behave, but the selective horror at Celtic fans celebrating on the field doesn’t convince if other field invasions are described as ‘glorious scenes’ or a ‘spontaneous outpouring of joy.’ Scotland has changed a lot in the last few decades but there are still those who gnash their teeth at the sight of the bad old ‘Tims’ celebrating.

Amid it all, Martin O’Neill has pulled of one of his greatest managerial achievements in guiding this Celtic side to the title and Scottish cup. If the begrudgers and haters refuse to recognise that then that’s tough.

You’d think they’d be used to it by now.