REFEREE BIAS IS OBVIOUS: BUT CELTIC MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 27 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Once again Celtic failed to win a crucial match. Once again, a series of questionable refereeing decisions led to that outcome.
Once again, the only reason we aren’t totally out of contention for the league championship at this point, is that our rivals are almost as inconsistent as we are.
Rangers staggered to a 2-2 draw at Livingston, meaning we can still leap-frog them into second place next weekend if we win at Ibrox. Hearts remain 6 points ahead, having played a game more than Celtic.
Celtic are still very much in this title race. We have a game next weekend against a very well-organized, but I still believe very ordinary, and eminently beatable Rangers side.
But no-one is talking about this impending season-defining match (because a loss for either side would probably bring the championship down to a two-horse race), instead, once again referee bias is all that’s hitting the headline’s today.
Celtic Need to Stop Enabling Referee Bias
Here’s the thing though: Celtic were rotten yesterday. Even before Auston Trusty’s red card and the obvious foul on Liam Scales that should have given us a penalty kick, before being bizarrely ruled out by VAR, we were still sitting at 1-1 and looking fragile against a mid-table Hibs side.
There’s no guarantee we would have won that game even with 11 men, and with the obvious referee bias removed.
Trusty’s red card is especially frustrating. My own take is that it was a red card, under the rules as they stand. However, I think those rules are badly in need of an overhaul. It is ridiculous that an opposition player can, legitimately, manhandle one of our players and nothing is done, so long as the ball isn’t active. Yet the minute our player retaliates, VAR just can’t wait to intervene and issue a red card.
That being said: Trusty needs to be smarter. He made it easy for the referee and his loyal ludge-mates. That’s how it is in Scotland. We’ve known that for decades.
Jock Stein famously said as much back in 1977: "Where Celtic are concerned, natural justice doesn't always seem to apply".
However, he also qualified this statement by saying: “If you’re good enough, the referee doesn’t matter.”
And therein lies the rub. Celtic weren’t good enough yesterday, just as we haven’t been good enough on several occasions this season. Yes, we have had some absolutely criminal decisions go against us thanks to the crooked nature of Scottish referees. However, as I said, such referee bias predates even the legendary Jock Stein and his Lisbon Lions.
Celtic have, historically, always had to find a way to win in spite of the referees. It’s clear to me that the fix is in this season, to try and do everything to help this flailing Rangers team win the league at our expense.
Hearts clearly didn’t get the script on that one, and are blazing an entirely unpredictable trail of their own. The Edinburgh side deserve credit for that. Celtic though, remain the masters of our own fate.
However, we cannot keep hiding behind the ingrained referee bias that has poisoned Scottish football for decades as an excuse for our current inability to win matches.
The league title is still in our hands. However, there can be no more slip-ups like yesterday.
We can do this. Bring on next weekend at Snake Mountain!