The spark the lit the Scottish referee saga is a bit lame. Referee awards penalty and instantly realises he’s made a mistake. To save face he pretends to have a conversation with one of his assistants and uses it as the pretext to reverse his decision. In the end, the result was correct. As scandals go, it’s hardly Calciopoli.
Since then we’ve had this drawn out in the media for six weeks. Now referees are going on strike because of the refusal of people to let this go. The final straw appears to have been Celtic chairman John Reid’s intervention last Thursday to call for the head of the lying referee – yes John Reid talking about someone else’s lies. No one died or was tortured thanks to Dougie MacDonald.
The SFA are said to be exploring flying in foreign referees this weekend so that games can go ahead. I hope they’ve given due consideration about whether these scabs will come from protestant or catholic majority countries.
Whether or not the strike goes ahead, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of contrition or lessons being taken on board. We’ve had ex-refs telling the public about the abuse and hostility they’ve faced. I fear if it will take a very serious incident before the game which is full of whinging John McEnroes takes note.
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