The Scottish refereeing community have certainly found a novel way to counter accusations of corruption and bias.

Having some of the worst refereeing standards in Europe can make it extremely difficult to level claims of bias in a meaningful way, despite decision making occasionally so egregious that it seems intentionally disadvantaging one team is the only explanation.

These issues have plagued Celtic throughout their history. There was a time when it was far more overt, with little or no chance of sanctions from an equally corrupt SFA.

Jock Stein famously said that “If you’re good enough the referee doesn’t matter” and many believe that to be the case. However, I believe that Stein was simply not allowing his players to latch onto a readymade excuse, no matter how entirely valid it may be. He knew that Celtic were beset at that time by shameless bias and bigotry.

It was an effective psychological exercise in standard setting, but even if you were to accept his quote at face value, being so dominant that the referee doesn’t matter is a long way from where Celtic are currently.

In fact, for the first time since a Govan based club was liquidated, the match officials can potentially decide the outcome of this league championship and yesterday was such an appalling display from the entire crew, both on and off the pitch, that accusations of bias and corruption immediately reared their head once more.

A National Embarrassment

Just how bad are Scottish referees in reality? Well, the upcoming world cup is the largest ever. More games require more officials.

FIFA’s selection process for this tournament was a three-year evaluation based on “quality and consistency,” resulting in a team of 52 referees, 88 assistants, and 30 VAR officials representing 50 member associations globally.

Not one of them is Scottish. This is the latest humiliation for the SFA, extending a 10yr absence of Scottish refs from major tournaments. You would have thought it required immediate remedial action after the first time it happened, but a decade later it seems the governing body is happy with the direction of travel and have made no meaningful changes to improve the situation.

Part time officials who are not required to declare their club allegiances are still deemed fit for purpose, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Transparently Terrible

The appointment of Willie Collum in 2024 was seen as an opportunity for more transparency. Especially following the tenure of Crawford Allan, whose stint in the top job was defined by The Rangers and their miracle run of not conceding a penalty in 75 games. A statistic so anomalous that it finally garnered global interest from astonished observers.

The Scottish FA’s VAR Review show was launched 4 months after Collum was appointed. To explain decisions, provide transparency, and “humanise” referees. Since it’s launch, the standard of refereeing has not improved in any measurable way, other than the end of that scandalous Rangers run, but we do get a monthly explanation of the catalogue of major errors. The wronged clubs can certainly feel vindicated and perhaps make their complaints official, but regular apologies from Mr Collum do not change the outcome of games.

The referees are currently under the microscope as almost never before, given the stakes for this title run in.

Despite that, the incompetence displayed yesterday was so inexplicable at times that bias is a perfectly reasonable assumption.

Red Card Refereeing

David Dickinson misses McGrath’s ankle breaking challenge on Johnston.

Douglas Ross flags offside for Maeda’s goal, despite being 10 yards behind the play and Daizen being clearly onside.

Don Robertson in the VAR room does not disallow the Hibs equaliser, apparently claiming insufficient evidence. Understandable, as the only evidence were the multiple TV angles where it clearly shows a handball in the act of scoring.

Nygren being violently shoved off the park whilst yards away from goal. An action that would have been penalised in rugby, much less football.

John Collins, the former Celtic and Hibs man covering the game for the BBC said “Surely VAR has to have a look, it’s as blatant a penalty as you’ll ever see. If VAR have watched that and think it shouldn’t be a penalty, every one of them should be sacked.”

Strong words which illustrated the feeling of every watching Celtic fan. Absolute disbelief that the incident could have been missed, unless someone had decided to ignore it.

No Insight, No Oversight

Mr Collum and his paymasters would inevitably deny all claims of bias and corruption. Accepting that, there is a prima facie case for an intolerable level of incompetence.

In one game, you have four major incidents being called incorrectly. Celtic winning the game means the level of scrutiny is much less than it should be.

This season may yet be decided on goal difference, and in that one game Celtic should have racked up three unanswered goals, taking them within touching distance of the leaders.

Yesterday’s decisions could have already decided who wins this league.

Any meaningful oversight would see the entire officiating team suspended pending review.

Any worthwhile attempt to reverse the ongoing decline in officiating standards, must begin with full time refs. To quell accusations of bias, they must adhere to the almost universal European standard of declaring your support for a domestic team.

A Conspiracy, But Not A Theory

It should not have taken more than a decade to arrive at these conclusions. The reluctance to accept what should be inevitable, smacks of an agenda that has historically favoured one Glasgow club over the other.

Since the “Dougiegate” scandal of 2010, when a penalty was awarded to Celtic, then overturned, and the subsequent lies about the series of events and the cover up that led to a referees strike in support of their lying and biased colleagues, we’ve had a name for this disgraceful behaviour.

The head of referees at that time was Hugh Dallas, who characterised the overtly biased decision for us. That’s the Dallas who not long afterwards had to resign for circulating a sectarian email about the Pope and child abuse.

An ‘honest mistake’ said the bold and unbiased Mister Dallas.

Having been dismissed over the years as paranoid, Celtic fans have learned one truism from their multiple proven experiences of bias from the SFA and their referees.

We’re not paranoid enough.

Especially in a year where we’re not good enough on the field to overcome those officials who hardly attempt to hide their malign intentions.