The world is watching. What damage can today's newspapers do?
Apparently even Barack Obama has told aides to forget about Wikileaks and bring him the latest missives from Scottish football's very own diplomatic crisis.
The newly retired Dougie McDonald has released a statement.
Imagine that we, Scottish football, are Margaret Thatcher. Dougie McDonald is our Geoffrey Howe.
The key point - for those of us who are of the opinion that Scottish football's survival is tied up in the ability to actually play games - is that another strike will happen.
Or at least that is Dougie's opinion.
In no particular order, seven talking points from Dougie's diatribe:
1. The SFA don't come out of Dougie's parting shot all that well. The strike is due, in part, to the "the lack of support they [referees] have received from the SFA General Purposes Committee in recent years."
2. Hugh Dallas has been hard done by, a victim of "appalling treatment" by the SFA. (Making Dallas a unique victim of Celtic, the Catholic church and the Scottish football establishment. Depending on who you listen to.)
3. Aiden McGeady and Peter Houston are mentioned by name for attacking referees. "Every club" is at fault, managers, players and directors. "The only difference being the degree and tenor of the criticism and the inferences from it."
4. Media pressure has become "intolerable."
5. McDonald's actions at Tannadice have "clouded" the refereeing issue:
"Now is the time for all of Scottish football to move on.
"My decision will therefore remove that issue from the debate and ensure that the next day of action – which, in my opinion, will undoubtedly come if the football community does not have a massive change of heart – will result in media coverage being concentrated on those who engage in referee bashing and those who condone it."
6. Cynics among us might say that Dougie's statement is a touch self important. He doesn't entirely dispel that feeling by referring to himself in the third person. But he also stresses that recent events aren't just about Celtic:
"It is also important to make clear that just as this issue is not about Dougie McDonald alone, nor is it about Celtic Football Club alone."
7. Things need to change. And clubs need to pay the price (through point deductions?):
"If things are to change for the better, clubs need to ensure their employees leave referees to do their job and the SFA has to deal strongly with those clubs who find it impossible to focus on the football. The current leniency of the SFA and the system of paltry fines and ineffective bans are proven to have zero impact.
"If the clubs are genuinely concerned about relationships with referees – and hopefully they are after this momentous weekend - and they want to make changes, they should have no fear in signing up to a disciplinary system that will see more stringent penalties and ones that have more direct impact on clubs, rather than their errant employees."
So there we have it. McDonald feels the referees have established a position of strength this weekend. That may or may not be the case. Still, at least now we have a name for the strike the next time it happens: "Day of action."
I'm not sure the statement (full version at STV) moves us on at all. Not a mea culpa. A threat of more action to come. But is he speaking for himself or for all referees?
Defending Hugh Dallas doesn't do McDonald any favours. An attack on the SFA is hardly earth shattering. It seems that the only consistency you get from the SFA is that everybody finds it a ridiculous organisation.
McDonald feels hard done by. He's had his say. He's told us nothing new.
But he's right. We do need to move on. A brief resignation statement would have helped us do that more than a diatribe.
And he is also right that this is about more than him. More than Celtic. It's about our game in crisis. Our game becoming ungovernable. We need to do something about that.
It's time to talk. It's time to get this sorted.
Showing posts with label Referees strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Referees strike. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Referee Crisis: Dougie McDonald Retires
Well, isn't this the story that just keeps on giving. News this evening that Dougie McDonald has retired as a Category One referee.
McDonald was, of course, the referee at Tannadice for the Dundee United v Celtic match. He gave Celtic a penalty and then changed his mind. He did all that within the rules and probably made the correct decision in the end.
But then he chose to lie about. And triggered off a sequence of increasingly hysterical events that have led to this week's farce.
It was impossible to defend McDonald's position. The minute he lied to Celtic the game was up. Difficult to fight accusations of dishonesty in refereeing when a leading referee has been caught being dishonest.
Hugh Dallas and Dougie McDonald are both now gone. The pound of flesh, probably rightly, has been delivered.
Time for the SFA to reassert their own authority and make sure the refereeing system is properly modernised and the referees themselves are properly protected.
So, now we move on. Hopefully.
Sky on the story:
Controversial Scottish official Dougie McDonald has retired as a category one referee with immediate effect.
The 45-year-old announced his decision in a statement on Sunday night following the first ever Scottish football referee strike this weekend.
McDonald has come under criticism after admitting he had misled Celtic boss Neil Lennon over his decision to rescind a penalty he initially awarded to the Hoops in their league win over Dundee United in October.
McDonald was, of course, the referee at Tannadice for the Dundee United v Celtic match. He gave Celtic a penalty and then changed his mind. He did all that within the rules and probably made the correct decision in the end.
But then he chose to lie about. And triggered off a sequence of increasingly hysterical events that have led to this week's farce.
It was impossible to defend McDonald's position. The minute he lied to Celtic the game was up. Difficult to fight accusations of dishonesty in refereeing when a leading referee has been caught being dishonest.
Hugh Dallas and Dougie McDonald are both now gone. The pound of flesh, probably rightly, has been delivered.
Time for the SFA to reassert their own authority and make sure the refereeing system is properly modernised and the referees themselves are properly protected.
So, now we move on. Hopefully.
Sky on the story:
Controversial Scottish official Dougie McDonald has retired as a category one referee with immediate effect.
The 45-year-old announced his decision in a statement on Sunday night following the first ever Scottish football referee strike this weekend.
McDonald has come under criticism after admitting he had misled Celtic boss Neil Lennon over his decision to rescind a penalty he initially awarded to the Hoops in their league win over Dundee United in October.
Referee Crisis: Time Out
The stereotype of a Scottish football fan. Get pissed before the game, shout abuse for 90 minutes, have a fight, get a bit more pissed.
Unfair and outdated. Mostly.
Especially this week.
Since the news of the referee’s strike broke I'm amazed at some of the discussions I’ve had, all of them inspired by the beautiful game.
What makes a strike official? Are freelance staff governed by the same rules as permanent employees when it comes to their right to withdraw labour? And, if the strike is only loosely defined, what constitutes strike breaking?
When is a joke a joke? What are considered acceptable subjects for humour? Is an email linking the Pope and Catholic church with child abuse a satire on the problems of the church or an attempt to make people laugh about child abuse? Does sending such an email immediately make the sender a sectarian bigot?
What is an unacceptable use of a workplace email account? Should unacceptable use result in instant dismissal? Is a high profile employee entitled to the same confidentiality during an internal investigation that you or I would expect?
What role does religion play in modern Scottish society? How far should religious groups be prepared to go influencing the affairs of other organisations?
And that’s just a flavour of the subjects that have cropped up.
Many of these questions are so far reaching that most politicians would be scared of tackling them.
Some of them throw up additional questions that resonate throughout Scottish society and raise issues about just how modern in outlook “modern Scotland” actually is.
A few of them, I fear, will never be resolved because the opposing views are too entrenched.
Now, I love a robust debate as much as the next man. And I enjoy the idea that football can raise questions that make us look at ourselves and the world around us in a different light.
But enough is enough. My head is starting to hurt, the will to live is seeping away.
Can everybody please calm down. Take a deep breath, take a step back. And remember that this is a game of football. Sport. Not life. Not death.
Important, yes. The national game, an integral part of our history over the last 100 years or so.
But a game. An often silly game, played by often silly men for the benefit of other often silly men and women. And yes, sometimes refereed by silly men and governed by silly men.
But still a game.
And a game needs to be played.
We’ve somehow got a full SPL fixture list this weekend. Not for the first time the lower division sides have been royally shafted. But the referees did what they thought was the unthinkable and we’ve survived.
The refs will still have their demands. Hugh Dallas still needs replaced. The SFA, SPL and SFL need to sit down with every club and every referee and make sure this never happens again.
But I’d like the next week to be all about the games at the weekend rather than a bizarre reenactment of a particularly bitter university debating society.
Football can be a powerful force for good. But I can guarantee that it’s unlikely to provide the answers to some of the more complex societal and philosophical questions that I’ve heard put in a footballing context this week.
At times, and I include myself in this, it’s felt like everyone with a passing interest in the game has been halfway through writing a rather ill-informed undergraduate thesis on issues political, religious or sociological.
And, alas, while we’ve been locked in this ever decreasing circle of navel gazing, the world has been watching. And many of them have been pissing themselves at the farce. Not intrigued by some of the more serious issues we’ve been discussing. Pissing themselves that we’re shipping in referees from any country that would return our phone calls.
So please can we get back to the game. Just football. Even in Scotland surely the football provides drama enough without the added baggage it’s been lumbered with this week.
This is a heartfelt plea.
I expect to be disappointed.
And I am prepared to go on strike if my demands aren’t met.
> My tipping point probably came on Twitter yesterday morning.
I was following a conversation, or a barrage of abuse, that included a number of people suggesting to Graham Spiers that the Hugh Dallas email confirmed the anti-Catholic (and thus anti-Celtic) bias in the Scottish football establishment.
Then a Rangers fan informed me that Celtic were now guaranteed preferential treatment from the SFA because chief executive Stewart Regan was an old friend of his opposite number at Celtic, Peter Lawwell.
I’m amazed I can even type this. Because it was at that exact moment that my head exploded.
Unfair and outdated. Mostly.
Especially this week.
Since the news of the referee’s strike broke I'm amazed at some of the discussions I’ve had, all of them inspired by the beautiful game.
What makes a strike official? Are freelance staff governed by the same rules as permanent employees when it comes to their right to withdraw labour? And, if the strike is only loosely defined, what constitutes strike breaking?
When is a joke a joke? What are considered acceptable subjects for humour? Is an email linking the Pope and Catholic church with child abuse a satire on the problems of the church or an attempt to make people laugh about child abuse? Does sending such an email immediately make the sender a sectarian bigot?
What is an unacceptable use of a workplace email account? Should unacceptable use result in instant dismissal? Is a high profile employee entitled to the same confidentiality during an internal investigation that you or I would expect?
What role does religion play in modern Scottish society? How far should religious groups be prepared to go influencing the affairs of other organisations?
And that’s just a flavour of the subjects that have cropped up.
Many of these questions are so far reaching that most politicians would be scared of tackling them.
Some of them throw up additional questions that resonate throughout Scottish society and raise issues about just how modern in outlook “modern Scotland” actually is.
A few of them, I fear, will never be resolved because the opposing views are too entrenched.
Now, I love a robust debate as much as the next man. And I enjoy the idea that football can raise questions that make us look at ourselves and the world around us in a different light.
But enough is enough. My head is starting to hurt, the will to live is seeping away.
Can everybody please calm down. Take a deep breath, take a step back. And remember that this is a game of football. Sport. Not life. Not death.
Important, yes. The national game, an integral part of our history over the last 100 years or so.
But a game. An often silly game, played by often silly men for the benefit of other often silly men and women. And yes, sometimes refereed by silly men and governed by silly men.
But still a game.
And a game needs to be played.
We’ve somehow got a full SPL fixture list this weekend. Not for the first time the lower division sides have been royally shafted. But the referees did what they thought was the unthinkable and we’ve survived.
The refs will still have their demands. Hugh Dallas still needs replaced. The SFA, SPL and SFL need to sit down with every club and every referee and make sure this never happens again.
But I’d like the next week to be all about the games at the weekend rather than a bizarre reenactment of a particularly bitter university debating society.
Football can be a powerful force for good. But I can guarantee that it’s unlikely to provide the answers to some of the more complex societal and philosophical questions that I’ve heard put in a footballing context this week.
At times, and I include myself in this, it’s felt like everyone with a passing interest in the game has been halfway through writing a rather ill-informed undergraduate thesis on issues political, religious or sociological.
And, alas, while we’ve been locked in this ever decreasing circle of navel gazing, the world has been watching. And many of them have been pissing themselves at the farce. Not intrigued by some of the more serious issues we’ve been discussing. Pissing themselves that we’re shipping in referees from any country that would return our phone calls.
So please can we get back to the game. Just football. Even in Scotland surely the football provides drama enough without the added baggage it’s been lumbered with this week.
This is a heartfelt plea.
I expect to be disappointed.
And I am prepared to go on strike if my demands aren’t met.
> My tipping point probably came on Twitter yesterday morning.
I was following a conversation, or a barrage of abuse, that included a number of people suggesting to Graham Spiers that the Hugh Dallas email confirmed the anti-Catholic (and thus anti-Celtic) bias in the Scottish football establishment.
Then a Rangers fan informed me that Celtic were now guaranteed preferential treatment from the SFA because chief executive Stewart Regan was an old friend of his opposite number at Celtic, Peter Lawwell.
I’m amazed I can even type this. Because it was at that exact moment that my head exploded.
Referee Crisis: Nothing New
Interesting chat on Twitter tonight about bringing in foreign referees for Old Firm games. I say "no". Although I can see the benefit of a formal exchange programme covering all SPL games a few times a season.*
Anyway, seems this is nothing new. Expecting a "passionate" Old Firm encounter the SFA shipped in an Englishman to officiate a game in 1905.
Scotland on Sunday has the full story:
"Scottish league football is not new to foreign referees. Indeed the Scottish League and the SFA first used one more than a century ago.
"While researching a book on classic Old Firm matches I came across the strange story of Fred Kirkham, the Englishman imported to referee a potentially explosive match between Celtic and Rangers."
The match was actually a play off for the championship - the only time it has ever been decided that way. Celtic won 2-1.
So not even this week of madness is particularly original. A century of progress.
* Cheers @terracepodcast @scotzine @thefootyblognet
Anyway, seems this is nothing new. Expecting a "passionate" Old Firm encounter the SFA shipped in an Englishman to officiate a game in 1905.
Scotland on Sunday has the full story:
"Scottish league football is not new to foreign referees. Indeed the Scottish League and the SFA first used one more than a century ago.
"While researching a book on classic Old Firm matches I came across the strange story of Fred Kirkham, the Englishman imported to referee a potentially explosive match between Celtic and Rangers."
The match was actually a play off for the championship - the only time it has ever been decided that way. Celtic won 2-1.
So not even this week of madness is particularly original. A century of progress.
* Cheers @terracepodcast @scotzine @thefootyblognet
Saturday, November 27, 2010
SPL Preview: League of Nations
So as things stand we’ve got a full SPL fixture list this weekend.
Foreign referees. Who will be great and prove that we can live without our Scottish numpties. Or be human, make mistakes, and have a whole heap of shit poured over their heads. We’ll see.
Luxembourg
Alain Hamer draws the shortest of straws as he takes charge of both Old Firm games. Unlikely to come under much scrutiny.
Celtic v Inverness
Inverness set out to preserve their fine away record at Celtic Park. Not an easy task. The draw with Rangers at Ibrox is proof that the Highlanders are made of stern stuff though. And Celtic’s last gasp win over St Mirren has been sandwiched between a defeat at Hearts and a draw with Dundee United at home. All to play for Caley.
Draw.
Dundee United v Rangers
United can be proud of their point at Celtic last time out and will be looking to get something from a Rangers team coming off Wednesday’s match with Manchester United. Rangers have injury concerns and were made to work against Kilmarnock last Saturday. I’ve got a feeling the league leaders will manage to see this one out though.
Away win.
- The Record reports that Alain Hamer is available because Luxembourg’s officials are involved in their own strike, refusing to referee games involving FC Wiltz and FC Canach. This is a neverending story.
Malta
Christian Lautier dodges the glamour tie that was Beith v Airdrie thanks to the snow. Instead he’s heading to a cold, cold Leith. Scotland's Morag Pirie is fourth official. She's a lady. Expect every comedian in the crowd to have something to say about that. Yawn.
Hibs v St Johnstone
After the optimism of two wins, Hibs crashed back to earth with their now traditional defeat at Inverness last week. Not that Colin Calderwood will have needed any convincing that his side are very much a work in progress. St Johnstone’s own trip up north was happier with a welcome win over Aberdeen. Tight one at Easter Road I think.
Draw.
Israel
Meir Levy gets to sample the delights of both Hamilton and Motherwell in a weekend double header that is probably not advertised on the VisitScotland website. Eli Hacmon completes the SPL card at Kilmarnock.
Hamilton v St Mirren
These are the games that Hamilton need to win if they are to drag themselves from the bottom of the league. They are also the games St Mirren need to win if they are to prove the doubters wrong and stay free from trouble. So a big match for both sides. I fancy St Mirren to pile on the misery for the Accies though.
Away win
Kilmarnock v Aberdeen
Mark McGhee admits he’s not looking for an open game here. Good of him to sell the game to the fans so enthusiastically. Understandable though given his predicament and the form of the home side. Can Aberdeen stop Killie from scoring? Probably not. More pain for McGhee.
Home win
Motherwell v Hearts
Third play fifth with only three points separating them. Should be a good game. I’ve got a feeling Hearts are on a bit of a roll now though. A win here and they can start to make third place their own. It’s up to Motherwell to stop them but that won’t be easy. Motherwell v Hearts, Brown v Jefferies. Intriguing prospect.
Away win
Referee Crisis: A Very Scottish Soap Opera
So Hugh Dallas has left the SFA. He clung on for a while. Perhaps he would have been able to ride out the storm over Dougie McDonald. Maybe he could have survived the eventual fall out from this weekend’s referee’s strike.
He might even have lived to fight another day in the wake of his less than judicious use of his work email around the time of the Pope’s visit.
But the three things together were insurmountable. Especially after, if certain rumours are to be believed, he had lost the confidence of SFA chief executive Stewart Regan.
As I wrote the other day I felt Dallas should have gone in the wake of his role in the McDonald farrago.
I’m also of the opinion that he stood in the way of modernising the way our refereeing system operates. Like many who have departed the SFA he doesn’t leave behind a legacy of achievement.
Sending the email was stupid and Dallas should have known better. But some of the outrage it has belatedly provoked seems manufactured. There’s not much about the whole affair that doesn’t seem distasteful and I include in that the Catholic church in Scotland getting publicly involved in an internal investigation by Dallas’ employers.
That, of course, is the price people pay for living in the public eye. And, rightly or wrongly, that was the position that Dallas found himself in.
As an atheist with agnostic sympathies I’m maybe not the right person to judge all of this. I can accept that. But I also find myself thinking of the times I’ve laughed at what might be called off-colour jokes on all manner of subjects. I’ve even cracked a few.
So I suppose when I hear some of the more hysterical condemnations of Dallas’ behaviour I find myself thinking “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Or “there but for the grace of whichever god go most of us.”
In the tragicomedy that Scottish football has become in the past week the email has become a distraction to sorting out a game in meltdown. Not a cause of the game’s problems but an obstacle in the search for a solution. With Dallas gone - professionally discredited, in my eyes, before he hit the send button back in September - we should be able to concentrate on getting the football back on track.
The challenge for Regan now is to replace Dallas, and the system he presided over, with something better. I wish him the best of luck. I fear he’ll need it.
Sadly Hugh Dallas is the not the first casualty of the recent controversies. That honour goes, once again, to Scottish football’s dignity.
At first it seemed like we’d be unable to find any countries willing to send us officials. Ireland, Wales, Iceland. One by one they said no.
Understandable, I suppose. It’s not a phone call you want from your boss:
“Fancy a busman’s holiday to Scotland? The forecast says snow which will add an hour minimum onto any journey you take, you’ll probably be called a scab. And if you make a mistake you’ll have your integrity questioned and your family might get abused.”
“Aye, nae bother. Sign me up. Beats a weekend in Reykjavik.”
Eventually Malta, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal came up trumps. Sadly our Polish and Portuguese men in the middle came, saw and promptly buggered off.
The Poles it seems thought they were on an exchange programme rather than a picket breaking trip. Like much else that’s happened this week, you really couldn’t make it up.
The SFA insist that all six SPL games will go ahead. I think they’re probably saying that while desperately studying the weather forecasts, hoping for a weekend whiteout that will put paid to at least some of the games.
At the end of another horrendous week for the SFA we still don’t know for sure that any games will go ahead on Saturday and Sunday.
Maybe a complete shutdown wouldn’t be a bad thing. If it takes a week without games to remind everyone that the game remains the most important thing then we might have salvaged something from this very Scottish soap opera.
> A Twitter rumour suggests Willie Young might be in line to take over from Hugh Dallas. Not the forward step we need. Very dapper fellow though. The only referee I’ve ever seen blow his nose with a black handkerchief. Complete colour co-ordination.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Referee Crisis: A Sorry Saga
If you were still wondering if Scottish football had lurched into crisis confirmation came during an SFA press conference yesterday.
Our old friend George Peat, president of that august institution, denied that game was in crisis. Case closed, we’re obviously in the middle of a catastrophe when George adopts his head in the sand posture.
The referees strike - although, legally, it might be more of a refusal to work - is the culmination of a turbulent few weeks.
Along the way we’ve had some drama, some moments of farce and much sorrowful shaking of heads from people who, and here I include myself, actually, crazy as it might sound, quite like Scottish football.
This is a multi-layered saga. An emotive one as well.
And nobody comes out of it particularly well.
Let us deal with Celtic first. Dougie McDonald lying to Neil Lennon didn’t start this collision course between Celtic and officialdom.
There is no conspiracy against Celtic. They might, like every other team to have played a game of football, have been victims of incompetence. But there is no smoking gun, Hugh Dallas is not scurrying away from the grassy knoll.
If Celtic want improvements in Scottish refereeing, they have gone about it in completely the wrong way.
Back in June, Neil Lennon had this to say about how his players should make themselves, and their opinions, known to referees:
"I did it myself as a player, not to influence the ref but to let him know we weren't happy, “ the Hoops gaffer said.
"Any challenges that were a wee bit heavy, there were two or three of us around the player who did it.”
This was part of Lennon’s drive to put the fire back into the Celtic players. It also signalled something unsavoury about the Celtic management’s attitude to referees. We probably should have predicted the storms ahead.
This is not to condone refereeing mistakes against Celtic. But it goes a long way to explaining what I consider to be a widely held view that Neil Lennon is neither the victim of a wide ranging “anti-Celtic” conspiracy nor an innocent bystander in the controversies that have engulfed him in recent weeks.
For reasons that I don’t fully understand Celtic seem to have ramped up their complaints this season, tacitly endorsing the view that the Scottish football establishment is waging war against the club.
Last week Celtic chairman John Reid told shareholders that the club:
"weren't looking for special treatment for Celtic, and never claimed to be better than anyone else, we won't be treated as less than anyone else. Those days are gone,"
“Those days are gone?” Interesting choice of words for a man who made a career out of delivering his government’s message. Calculated, you might say.
Reid may have been simply pandering to his audience. But he knew that his comments would be widely reported, that they would have a greater impact than simply a chairman addressing his shareholders.
Given the swirling discontent surrounding the issue of refereeing, and the refereeing of Celtic games in particular, I’d argue that Reid was fanning the flames of a controversy that was already threatening to run out of control. I think that was irresponsible and unbecoming of the role he holds.
Reid also suggested that Dougie McDonald should resign for lying and trying to get others to lie on his behalf. He might well be right. But I’d suggest that a man who held no fewer than six cabinet positions during Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war is probably not as qualified as others to make that argument.
To paraphrase Tom Lehrer “it was at that moment that satire in Scottish football died.”
During this prolonged period of uproar, Celtic’s conduct has been misguided, tinged with paranoia and, in recent weeks, both manager and chairman have been guilty of making misguided, even inflammatory, comments.
And that has done them no favours. It’s robbed them of any sympathy they might have had for the poor decisions that they’ve been on the receiving end of. More importantly, it has muddied the waters of a debate that Scottish football needs to have.
I’ve been arguing for long enough that the SFA is not fit for purpose. That’s been crystal clear in the last few weeks.
In the Dundee United v Celtic game Dougie McDonald made a mistake. He then rectified that mistake. And he then compounded the whole saga by telling lies. In a job that demands honesty and integrity that is unforgivable.
It’s an open and shut case that nobody appears to be denying.
Yet McDonald remains as a Category One referee? How is that possible? I don’t know. The SFA new Chief Executive Stewart Regan - who is surely longing for the more sedate environs of Yorkshire cricket - launched an investigation.
But he then had to hand any decision over to the referees committee made up of McDonald’s colleagues in the refereeing world.
It seems senior SFA figures are surprised that McDonald remains in place yet are unable or unwilling to remove him. Surely now they’ve found the excuse they need to revolutionise their processes and systems.
If weekend reports that our top officials are incapable of reaching the acceptable pass mark in a standard test on the rules of the game are true then something is seriously awry in the way we train and assess match officials.
It’s here that Celtic’s ranting and raving - and Celtic’s is the more immediate example and the more media friendly one, although Hearts and Dundee United’s Peter Houston have also been guilty - is nothing more than a distraction.
By either suggesting or condoning a conspiracy Celtic detract from the more real problems of a widespread incompetence.
And, for that, the buck has to stop with the man who apparently must always be called “ref’s supremo,” Hugh Dallas.
Dallas played his own murky role in the McDonald affair. More damaging, however, is the inescapable conclusion that the SFA seem to allow him to exercise a Stalinist level of control over all issues to do with refereeing in the Scottish game.
If Dallas was the right man for the job he’d be across the airwaves right now either backing or condemning the threatened strike.
If he was the right man for the job he’d be putting mechanisms in place to make referees more accountable, the decision making process more transparent.
If he was the right man for the job we’d have fewer bad decisions to discuss and some method of demotion or suspension to deal with the worst offending officials.
But we have none of these things. So Hugh Dallas has to go and he has to take Dougie McDonald with him.
If there is a reluctance within the SFA to insist on that then it can be probably be explained as a refusal to pander to Celtic. Which leads to a cul-de-sac. If the SFA refuse to act because of the way Celtic have behaved then we’re in a rather sorry mess. A plague on both their houses.
And then we come to the latest twist. The referee’s planned strike at the weekend. The final descent into farce.
Not all our referees are irredeemably bad at their job. Many are guilty of mistakes but they are honest mistakes. Even at their worst they retain their integrity - McDonald’s moment of madness after the game at Tannadice aside.
The idea that they turn up for 90 minutes every Saturday, pocket their cash and go home is laughable.
It takes dedication to be a referee. And it takes a thick skin to put up with the abuse they receive from the moment they start out refereeing age group games. In fact it’s hard to think of another job, except perhaps politics, where realising your ambitions will bring such an increase in the amount of abuse you need to put up with. And they do all this in their spare time.
There’s something to admire in their dedication, even if you suspect that many of them probably always volunteered to be milk monitors at school.
But there is nothing admirable in the decision to strike. Their actions have generated bad press for Scottish football at a time when we are hardly the most respected of footballing nations.
They’ve also jeopardised important revenue streams for our clubs at a time when we’re not awash with cash.
And, by refusing to give interviews to fully explain their reasons, they have created a media vacuum that has been filled with speculation and gossip.
At the moment I don’t understand what the strike will achieve. It seems a strike that has little purpose, certainly no definable measure of it’s success. That’s not so much an industrial action as it is a holiday.
When it comes to the strike game they’ve shown themselves to be more Arthur Scargill than Jimmy Reid.
If referees have been subjected to sustained abuse outwith what is normal in the heat of a game, if their families feel threatened, if they have been receiving abuse at their full time workplaces, then that is wrong.
If they feel that any clubs, managers, players or officials are guilty of encouraging that atmosphere with their behaviour or comments then they need to state that and demand that the SFA takes action.
Certainly wiping out the weekend’s fixture list is not going to halt the actions of society’s nutters. And there must better ways of getting the SFA’s attention than enforcing a weekend shutdown.
Where will be when all this is over? Dougie McDonald will still be a referee. Hugh Dallas will still be presiding over his own personal fiefdom. Celtic will still be peddling their complaints. The SFA will appear even more impotent than before.
Weeks of nonsense, weeks of faults and stupidity on every side of the various arguments, will have ended in a farce that has achieved nothing.
And it’s me. And it’s you. The punters who just want to see a game, have a couple of pints while discussing how the players played and the ref reffed who will have lost out. And the rudderless ship that is modern Scottish football will have lurched ever closer to the rocks.
> What? No mention of the Hugh Dallas email? No. Not relevant. Perhaps it calls into question his judgement. It might even call into question his sense of humour. It definitely calls into question his IT skills. But it’s a human resources question for his employers rather than anything else. Others might disagree.
Our old friend George Peat, president of that august institution, denied that game was in crisis. Case closed, we’re obviously in the middle of a catastrophe when George adopts his head in the sand posture.
The referees strike - although, legally, it might be more of a refusal to work - is the culmination of a turbulent few weeks.
Along the way we’ve had some drama, some moments of farce and much sorrowful shaking of heads from people who, and here I include myself, actually, crazy as it might sound, quite like Scottish football.
This is a multi-layered saga. An emotive one as well.
And nobody comes out of it particularly well.
Let us deal with Celtic first. Dougie McDonald lying to Neil Lennon didn’t start this collision course between Celtic and officialdom.
There is no conspiracy against Celtic. They might, like every other team to have played a game of football, have been victims of incompetence. But there is no smoking gun, Hugh Dallas is not scurrying away from the grassy knoll.
If Celtic want improvements in Scottish refereeing, they have gone about it in completely the wrong way.
Back in June, Neil Lennon had this to say about how his players should make themselves, and their opinions, known to referees:
"I did it myself as a player, not to influence the ref but to let him know we weren't happy, “ the Hoops gaffer said.
"Any challenges that were a wee bit heavy, there were two or three of us around the player who did it.”
This was part of Lennon’s drive to put the fire back into the Celtic players. It also signalled something unsavoury about the Celtic management’s attitude to referees. We probably should have predicted the storms ahead.
This is not to condone refereeing mistakes against Celtic. But it goes a long way to explaining what I consider to be a widely held view that Neil Lennon is neither the victim of a wide ranging “anti-Celtic” conspiracy nor an innocent bystander in the controversies that have engulfed him in recent weeks.
For reasons that I don’t fully understand Celtic seem to have ramped up their complaints this season, tacitly endorsing the view that the Scottish football establishment is waging war against the club.
Last week Celtic chairman John Reid told shareholders that the club:
"weren't looking for special treatment for Celtic, and never claimed to be better than anyone else, we won't be treated as less than anyone else. Those days are gone,"
“Those days are gone?” Interesting choice of words for a man who made a career out of delivering his government’s message. Calculated, you might say.
Reid may have been simply pandering to his audience. But he knew that his comments would be widely reported, that they would have a greater impact than simply a chairman addressing his shareholders.
Given the swirling discontent surrounding the issue of refereeing, and the refereeing of Celtic games in particular, I’d argue that Reid was fanning the flames of a controversy that was already threatening to run out of control. I think that was irresponsible and unbecoming of the role he holds.
Reid also suggested that Dougie McDonald should resign for lying and trying to get others to lie on his behalf. He might well be right. But I’d suggest that a man who held no fewer than six cabinet positions during Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war is probably not as qualified as others to make that argument.
To paraphrase Tom Lehrer “it was at that moment that satire in Scottish football died.”
During this prolonged period of uproar, Celtic’s conduct has been misguided, tinged with paranoia and, in recent weeks, both manager and chairman have been guilty of making misguided, even inflammatory, comments.
And that has done them no favours. It’s robbed them of any sympathy they might have had for the poor decisions that they’ve been on the receiving end of. More importantly, it has muddied the waters of a debate that Scottish football needs to have.
I’ve been arguing for long enough that the SFA is not fit for purpose. That’s been crystal clear in the last few weeks.
In the Dundee United v Celtic game Dougie McDonald made a mistake. He then rectified that mistake. And he then compounded the whole saga by telling lies. In a job that demands honesty and integrity that is unforgivable.
It’s an open and shut case that nobody appears to be denying.
Yet McDonald remains as a Category One referee? How is that possible? I don’t know. The SFA new Chief Executive Stewart Regan - who is surely longing for the more sedate environs of Yorkshire cricket - launched an investigation.
But he then had to hand any decision over to the referees committee made up of McDonald’s colleagues in the refereeing world.
It seems senior SFA figures are surprised that McDonald remains in place yet are unable or unwilling to remove him. Surely now they’ve found the excuse they need to revolutionise their processes and systems.
If weekend reports that our top officials are incapable of reaching the acceptable pass mark in a standard test on the rules of the game are true then something is seriously awry in the way we train and assess match officials.
It’s here that Celtic’s ranting and raving - and Celtic’s is the more immediate example and the more media friendly one, although Hearts and Dundee United’s Peter Houston have also been guilty - is nothing more than a distraction.
By either suggesting or condoning a conspiracy Celtic detract from the more real problems of a widespread incompetence.
And, for that, the buck has to stop with the man who apparently must always be called “ref’s supremo,” Hugh Dallas.
Dallas played his own murky role in the McDonald affair. More damaging, however, is the inescapable conclusion that the SFA seem to allow him to exercise a Stalinist level of control over all issues to do with refereeing in the Scottish game.
If Dallas was the right man for the job he’d be across the airwaves right now either backing or condemning the threatened strike.
If he was the right man for the job he’d be putting mechanisms in place to make referees more accountable, the decision making process more transparent.
If he was the right man for the job we’d have fewer bad decisions to discuss and some method of demotion or suspension to deal with the worst offending officials.
But we have none of these things. So Hugh Dallas has to go and he has to take Dougie McDonald with him.
If there is a reluctance within the SFA to insist on that then it can be probably be explained as a refusal to pander to Celtic. Which leads to a cul-de-sac. If the SFA refuse to act because of the way Celtic have behaved then we’re in a rather sorry mess. A plague on both their houses.
And then we come to the latest twist. The referee’s planned strike at the weekend. The final descent into farce.
Not all our referees are irredeemably bad at their job. Many are guilty of mistakes but they are honest mistakes. Even at their worst they retain their integrity - McDonald’s moment of madness after the game at Tannadice aside.
The idea that they turn up for 90 minutes every Saturday, pocket their cash and go home is laughable.
It takes dedication to be a referee. And it takes a thick skin to put up with the abuse they receive from the moment they start out refereeing age group games. In fact it’s hard to think of another job, except perhaps politics, where realising your ambitions will bring such an increase in the amount of abuse you need to put up with. And they do all this in their spare time.
There’s something to admire in their dedication, even if you suspect that many of them probably always volunteered to be milk monitors at school.
But there is nothing admirable in the decision to strike. Their actions have generated bad press for Scottish football at a time when we are hardly the most respected of footballing nations.
They’ve also jeopardised important revenue streams for our clubs at a time when we’re not awash with cash.
And, by refusing to give interviews to fully explain their reasons, they have created a media vacuum that has been filled with speculation and gossip.
At the moment I don’t understand what the strike will achieve. It seems a strike that has little purpose, certainly no definable measure of it’s success. That’s not so much an industrial action as it is a holiday.
When it comes to the strike game they’ve shown themselves to be more Arthur Scargill than Jimmy Reid.
If referees have been subjected to sustained abuse outwith what is normal in the heat of a game, if their families feel threatened, if they have been receiving abuse at their full time workplaces, then that is wrong.
If they feel that any clubs, managers, players or officials are guilty of encouraging that atmosphere with their behaviour or comments then they need to state that and demand that the SFA takes action.
Certainly wiping out the weekend’s fixture list is not going to halt the actions of society’s nutters. And there must better ways of getting the SFA’s attention than enforcing a weekend shutdown.
Where will be when all this is over? Dougie McDonald will still be a referee. Hugh Dallas will still be presiding over his own personal fiefdom. Celtic will still be peddling their complaints. The SFA will appear even more impotent than before.
Weeks of nonsense, weeks of faults and stupidity on every side of the various arguments, will have ended in a farce that has achieved nothing.
And it’s me. And it’s you. The punters who just want to see a game, have a couple of pints while discussing how the players played and the ref reffed who will have lost out. And the rudderless ship that is modern Scottish football will have lurched ever closer to the rocks.
> What? No mention of the Hugh Dallas email? No. Not relevant. Perhaps it calls into question his judgement. It might even call into question his sense of humour. It definitely calls into question his IT skills. But it’s a human resources question for his employers rather than anything else. Others might disagree.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Reffing Hell!
The SPL kick off may be delayed by a referee's strike.
For the love of God, how much more ridicule can football in this country survive?
Bad enough that this fine band of men make so many ludicrous decisions. Bad enough that you are unable to question them. Bad enough that some clown thought it would be a good idea to have them sponsored by Specsaver.
Now we're being held to ransom as the men in the middle demand something approaching a 74 percent pay rise. 74 percent. Robert Mugabe would cringe at that level of inflation.
They have claimed they want to be paid a similar wage to countrparts in similar European leagues.
Quick question: other than the distortion of the wages paid in Glasgow does the SPL pay comparative wages to players?
First reaction - tell them to go whistle. Ship in some referee's from elsewhere and see if the standard improves.
Second reaction - we need, unfortunately, to do a deal. If the league doesn't kick off at 12.30 on Saturday then what little credibilty we do have is going to be shattered.
Can we afford to let that happen?
For the love of God, how much more ridicule can football in this country survive?
Bad enough that this fine band of men make so many ludicrous decisions. Bad enough that you are unable to question them. Bad enough that some clown thought it would be a good idea to have them sponsored by Specsaver.
Now we're being held to ransom as the men in the middle demand something approaching a 74 percent pay rise. 74 percent. Robert Mugabe would cringe at that level of inflation.
They have claimed they want to be paid a similar wage to countrparts in similar European leagues.
Quick question: other than the distortion of the wages paid in Glasgow does the SPL pay comparative wages to players?
First reaction - tell them to go whistle. Ship in some referee's from elsewhere and see if the standard improves.
Second reaction - we need, unfortunately, to do a deal. If the league doesn't kick off at 12.30 on Saturday then what little credibilty we do have is going to be shattered.
Can we afford to let that happen?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)