Media hyperbole sets out to crucify Celtic
See, we can write hysterically too
Chick Young has spent a fair bit of time in Glasgow and Renfrew in his life, so he’ll be accustomed to a bit of violence and argy-bargy. No offence to Chico but we’re not putting him down as a shrinking violet or a wide-eyed innocent.
Which makes his comments about Celtic and Dougie McDonald completely over the top.
You all know the backdrop, Celtic have 4 penalty shouts against Dundee United and receive none. Post-game, McDonald concocts a lie to inform Neil Lennon of why Celtic had a penalty rescinded.
Why he felt the need to lie, who knows but he did.
Why Hugh Dallas felt the need to continue the lie in the media, who knows but he did.
Why Darryl Broadfoot felt the need to spread lies about the reason for Steven Craven’s resignation, who knows but… you get the picture.
Celtic are the victim in the Dougie Dougie (they have cases to answer on other issues but not here) – they were lied to by a body in charge of the game that is supposed to have integrity. Their fans were tarnished by claims of violence which Steven Craven has admitted did not happen.
Celtic, quite rightly have stood up for themselves and their support. And yet amazingly, Celtic are in the ‘wrong’ over this.
If you believe Chick Young, they have taken a baseball bat to Dougie McDonald. They have quite clearly done no such thing.
They have (asked for / demanded – delete as applicable) that McDonald be removed from the list of referees. Given that McDonald has proved that he has no integrity, it is not a leap of faith to suggest he has no business being a referee.
In failing to resolve this issue satisfactorily, the SFA have created the situation we are in today.
It is the governing body of Scottish football that should be on trial for failing to preserve the integrity of the game. This is bad enough but to carry out a targeted process of lies against a member club makes you fear what is really going on at Hampden Park.
Fairness, transparency and honesty about mistakes would go a long way to resolving issues and installing an ounce of faith back in the SFA.
Instead, the blazer wearers have closed ranks, muttering of innuendo all the while laughing up their sleeve about ‘funny’ emails and playing the victim card when it is they that is in the role of the bully.
The latest step in threatening ‘strike’ action is a clear act of deflect and deny. Sunday’s revelation that 80% of Scottish refs do not understand the rules should be the headline here. Incompetent staff members threatening to strike because they cannot do their job properly is not a headline, it’s an insult.
An insult to the countless number of fans that go to games every weekend paying considerable amounts of money for the privilege of doing so. The vast majority of fans don’t want special treatment, all they want is fairness, or an admission that mistakes are being made but moves are being made to rectify them.
The stakes are high in Scottish football, jobs are on the line and club’s futures are in serious danger. The power of referees to influence this is far too strong and with no accountability, the arrogance and attitude of the officials has gone too far.
People moan about petulant players earning too much but at least they have the skill and talent that people attend games to see. A good ref is one that isn’t seen but in Scotland, our refs are being moulded in the shape of the current head of refereeing.
Hugh Dallas loves the spotlight and did everything in his power to ensure all eyes would be on him during a match. It is funny that in that past fortnight he has been quiet…once again proving himself to be a coward of a man.
So is Scottish football in a bad way? Absolutely.
Is it irretrievably gubbed? Not quite but it’s really not far off and it is all the fault of the governing body.
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When you have dolts like Peat in positions of power you can’t expect anything other than a 2-bob shambles with no clear leadership. I heard him on the news speaking about the strike situation and saying that, whilst he could not condone strike action he could understand why it was being done?!? Isn’t that you condoning it then you eejit?
Then he goes on about conspiracy theories, etc, in a thinly-veiled dig at Celtic! Who from Celtic has officially made a statement about this then George? Remember, this is the same individual who was part of a board who found Jim Farry entirely innocent of any wrongdoings before an independent commission managed to squeeze out the truth of the whole sordid incident.
The ref strike seems to me to be the last desperate act of deflection from an organisation that is about to fall on it’s sword.
I will say one thing, I do NOT envy Stewart Regan’s position right now.
gonnae leave us alaine! It’s oor baw and we’re no’ playin’!
Poor Celtic, everyone out to get them it would appear.
It’s funny how the referee’s have had to take this step as they fear for their safety and well being in the aftermath of football matches, funnily enough normally ones in which Celtic didn’t win.
Celtic and their board of directors are the bullies here and should have been put in their place the minute this whole sordid mess started.
Lawell – “The pressure we have put the SFA under is now starting to pay dividends” whatever can that mean?
Brian Quinn the previous Celtic chairman managed to conduct himself with great dignity in his time at the club, a time that was synonymous with Celtic’s success on and off the field. Makes you wonder now that Dr no morals has overseen the abject failure of his side against the weakest Rangers squad in years, how suddenly the victim card is being brought back out. It’s the Celtic way I suppose.
Dougie class comment message to refs do us all a favour make the strike permanent sex & travel
The media says its all about the Dougie Dougie incident – a match Celtic won.
The media says Steven Craven and his family received threats from Celtic fans after the match – he denied this. The SFA are the ones making it about a victim – the refs.
@Quagmire Just shut it you moron. Celtic have been denied countless penalties- FACT. We were given a penalty by Dougie before he changed his mind- FACT. He lied about why he changed his mind- FACT. Hugh Dallas also lied- FACT. Hugh Dallas sends disgraceful email mocking the pope (and all Catholics)- FACT! If we were sitting here playing the victim, maybe it’s because we ARE the f****ng victim! We only ask for fairness but seems other teams (Huns especially) are happy to watch Celtic being cheated and lied to. Wonder why….?
Authority that has been abused is authority that should be challenged.
I can’t imagine another country where a referee has admitted lying, where the head of the referees has lied and colluded to the detriment of one team, and where a jury of refereeing peers has let these go without a murmur, proving the refs unaccountable.
If they had acted as any other responsible body would have done and even just demoted macdonald for a few months the wind would have been taken out of this story’s sails. There is no-one to blame here but the refs’ association and the sfa’s handling of it.
Dallas’ anti catholic email is a sideshow but could be seen as an example of institutionalised prejudice within refereeing ranks and he should be censured for it as any other employee should be. Again swift decisive action would have nipped the story in the bud.
These issues are not of celtic’s making, we are not the one’s who have dragged scottish football down – the actions of dallas and dougie dougie have done is shed light on the dirt that’s been there for years. Only difference is we now have PROOF.
Here’s an interesting nugget from Celtic’s recent ‘roadshows’ where the media was banned from attending, perhaps the content explains the reason why;
According to a website report of a Celtic supporters’ question and answer session in Dundee on July 25th this year, at which Peter Lawwell was supposedly present, the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, in answer to a question, said this . . .
‘Do you not remember me getting in Stewart Dougal’s face? I want to create a siege mentality, us against them, we are anti-establishment’!
http://forum.celtictalk.org/topic/16086-qa-with-neil-lennon-and-peter-lawwell/
FAO Jocky – I fully endorse most of your post and most certainly McDonald should have been demoted, suspended or sacked even and for that I have some sympathy for Celtic. However let’s not detract from the main issue here, this wasn’t a deliberate mistake from a plan hatched against Celtic, no this was a referee who had the balls to change his initial wrong decision but was so scared of the outdated procedures set by the SFA that he concocted a story with his linesman to try and avoid censure for making the initial mistake. So please spare me the anti Celtic bias amongst all this hysteria.
As for Dallas and his e-mail, well it was a viral that was sent round many thousands of e-mail addresses, he was very naive to send it on but I fail to see the significance with Celtic, are they now saying that they are a Catholic Club? Last I heard they were open to all raced, creed, colour and religion so why the upset?
Celtic haven’t commented in the Dallas email – for the reasons stated.
However, just because Celtic don’t view themselves as an RC club, it doesn’t stop the majority of bigots as viewing the club as the embodiment of the faith. And crucially, as the part it is able to attack, whilst dressing it up in bantery football reasons
Celtc, paranoid idiots since 1888
A very useful comment Al, you certainly bring a helluva lot to any mature debate. You must have won many an argument in your time.
Can’t folk get it through their thick heads that this whole sordid affair is NOT, despite the hysterical tabloid rag headlines and George Peat’s disgraceful undignified diatribes, simply a Celtic vs everyone else matter! Can’t they see the bigger picture?
Why would anyone want to defend bungling, incompetent lying fools who, staggeringly, do not seem to be able to comprehend the basic laws of the game and now want to go on strike because they seem to think they are above any kind of criticism?
Billy, that would be fine if it was left as it was previously when Stewart Regan told the Celtic hierarchy that he would deal with the disciplinary aspects and also the need for greater transparency within the SFA. Barely a week had passed and we had Hooper and his ill advised comments, Lennon and his carry on at the Hearts game and questioning Thomsons integrity and then finally Reid & Lawell’s statements at the AGM.
Can you not see why the ordinary ref is a bit pissed off? Collum has already had death threats for having the audacity for giving Rangers their first penalty at Parkhead in over a decade, soft or not. I can’t recall the ref who gave McDonald a penalty after Broadfoot’s ‘challenge’ which was clearly outside the box in a 3-2 defeat a few years back can you?
Clarification FC have handled the whole situation badly by pandering to the lowest common denominator in your support, the conspiracy theorists who believe the establishment is out to get Celtic, total pish. Auld Billy McBungle stating that it’s gone on for 50 years, again total pish. The same manager who’s side won the Scottish Cup with a controversial winner from a throw in that was clearly a Rangers throw, yes Billy their all out to get you. It was the same when O’Niell was winning all before him, not a peep about referee’s well not until he started losing funnily enough.
We also hear of all the mistakes Collum made against Celtic in the recent derby match, yet the Celtic management omit to mention Stokes horrific challenge on Papac or Samaras ability to stay on the pitch despite several shocking challenges.
Finally the only mistake that McDonald made at Tannadice was lying about his match report in order to save him and his linesmans bacon about making a poor original decision, Celtic were NOT cheated in this match.
Forgive my outbursts. I’m consumed by the bitter resentment of never having fullfilled my life’s dream of working in musical theatre.
quagmire,
Which part of the following can’t you comprehend, or don’t wish to entertain? :-
“Can’t folk get it through their thick heads that this whole sordid affair is NOT, despite the hysterical tabloid rag headlines and George Peat’s disgraceful undignified diatribes, simply a Celtic vs everyone else matter! Can’t they see the bigger picture?
Why would anyone want to defend bungling, incompetent lying fools who, staggeringly, do not seem to be able to comprehend the basic laws of the game and now want to go on strike because they seem to think they are above any kind of criticism?”
“Conspiracy theories!” “Death threats!” Your responses reek of the wedgie-induced shrieking hysteria that only a self-confessed tabloid scourer could be capable of. What death threats? Who mentioned conspiracy theories, masonic or otherwise? I can picture you nodding along furiously like the Churchill dog as you read yet another salivating article from the likes of Traynor, Leckie, et al.
Your final statement is priceless – “Finally the only mistake that McDonald made at Tannadice was lying about his match report in order to save him and his linesmans bacon about making a poor original decision, Celtic were NOT cheated in this match.”
In YOUR opinion DougieDougie finally made the right decision, I still say it was a penalty. The only mistake DougieDougie made was lying? Quite a huge mistake all the same eh? And how did it save his linesman’s bacon? It brought an innocent bystander into the limelight when he had nothing to do with it at all. Why keep on perpetuating the lie with the full backing of your superior for days afterwards? Would the truth have got out if Mr Craven didn’t decide to cash his chips with some tawdry rag or other?
Now please explain rationally the REAL reason refs are going on strike (wait a mo, wasn’t that Craig Thomson officiating Ajax vs Real Madrid last night? Didn’t last long did it?) and why you so obviously back them 100% to the hilt. If you can explain it without making it all about Celtic I might be prepared to listen.
My posts says it al really, the debacle at Tannadice should be dealt with in a more appropriate manner in which it has. My own suggestion would be demotion for McDonald and a clear and concise investigation into the way the refereeing and disciplinary process in Scotland works, it badly needs overhauled and brought into the 21st Century.
Again I refer to my previous post, Regan met with the Celtic board and asked for time to sort out the mess and overhaul the system that allowed the non punishment of McDonald, he was afforded less than a weekend before all the hysteria emanated from Parkhead once more, Hoopers crazy assertion that ref’s just love giving decisions against them because they’re a big club?Lennons touchline antics at Tynecastle and the post match interview where he questioned the integrity of Thomson for sending Ledley off all culminating in the AGM press conference where the war mongering and expenses cheat started waxing lyrically about morality and Lawell states that the pressure applied to the SFA is paying dividends.
Had Celtic kept their powder dry and kept the pressure on the SFA privately, then firstly the ref’s wouldn’t have went on strike and secondly the majority of Scottish Football would have backed their stance for change, their actions have simply alienated the majority of neutrals within the game.
Can you not see that?
Really, Quagmire? I’m a neutral and I support Celtic’s stance wholeheartedly. Why should my club and the others in division 1 be burdend with a ref who has admitted dishonesty in a job where integrity, or the perception of it, is paramount. Can you not see that every contentious decision MCDonald makes from now on will be scrutised beyond belief by, managers, fans and the press?
McDonald should go, not because of vindictiveness or spite although I accept that is what is fueling a certain minority of Celtic fans, but because it is the right thing to do. These are the checks and balances which should govern the conduct of our officials and, although not the most heinous
iPhone Issues.
Cont’d: and although the motive for the lie does not appear to be the most heinous of crimes, the fact remains that trust has been broken and cannot be reinstated. The SFA’s fudging of this main issue and has led to where we are today. Had they taken decisive action at the time, then Reid and Lennon would have had no room to the subsequent comments that they did. But the SFA didn’t and now we are where we are and this issue is now massively more inflated, massively more conveluted and massively more difficult to manage than the original issue should have been. Amy fair-minded person can see this is mess almost entirely of the SFA’s making.
I couldn’t give a Chinese shite if McDonald never referee’s again to be honest and agree with most of what you Bertie, but please save me the part that Celtic are innocent in all this, for proof see the details in posts above, the new CE of the SFA has assured Celtic that he would sort this mess and have an overview of the situation, had they stayed silent and allowed him to do this, all this nonsense would never have escalated to the point we are now at.
FFS Quags, what have you got against the Chinese?
Lucky for you they can’t access Google or they’d be finding that comment and coming to Ibrox tonight to sort you out!
As an aside – you dont know what the agreement Regan made or offered – if it was that Dougie Dougie would not ref in the top flight until something was sorted….and then he appeared – Celtic may have said “the gloves are off”
Im not saying this is the case – just conjecture and blah blah blah….
Quags, as far as I know both Lennon and Reid replied to questions put to them by the media and shareholders respectively about the McDonald issue alone. And while I don’t agree with Reid’s insinuation of institutional bias, it was the media who brought that from a private setting – the AGM – to the wider public attention.
Regan may have given assurances about the restructuring of SFA disciplinary proceedures, but the limp-wristed handling of the McDonald case gave the media and Celtic the room to run with it. This would not have happened had he been dismissed, as he should have been, at the time.
You may not like it, and judging by the hostility in your posts you don’t, but the SFA’s handling of this has given Celtic the ammunition to nail them. And regardless of whatever other agenda, perceived or otherwise, may be behind their motives, on this one issue of McDonald’s position being untenable they are completely in the right.
The SFA, to quote Gilbert and Sullivan, have been “hoisted by their own petard” on this one. Perhaps your anger would be better directed at them.
How did Hooper’s daft ill-informed comments have any bearing whatsoever on the DougieDougie hearing? A hearing which consisted of a panel of……..referees and ex-referees!
Neil Lennon and John Reid ain’t the ones in the meeja and on telly bumping their gums to the press day after day on the issue. Who are the 2 most prominent faces in all this? Yes, media darling ex-refs Stuart Dougal and Kenny Clark! They, probably more than most (let’s not forget George ‘Dumpling’ Peat’s comments also), have done more to ignite whatever so-called fire there is burning.
Interesting in all your rants that you never once mentioned Hearts either. Hmmm.
Quote:- “their actions have simply alienated the majority of neutrals within the game”. I take you aren’t one of these ‘neutrals’ then? How can you possibly speak up for the majority?
Quagmire wanks over this forum.