Why does the SMSM continue to defend the “referee allegiances” debate, while labelling Celtic fans as conspiracy theorists to justify that defence?
Eric Knott 
Before I actually delve into the subject matter in the headline of my article, I need to clarify something.
Or more to the point, find an answer to the below question.
What is the exact definition of a “conspiracy theorist”?
According to the Oxford dictionary, a conspiracy theorist is a person who believes that some secret but influential organisation is responsible for a particular event or phenomenon.
So firstly, there’s your answer to that question, from the most respected dictionary in the English language.
It’s pretty clear.
The key words in that definition are “secret but influential organisation”.
Now secondly, the SFA is an “influential organisation”.
It influences everything in Scottish football.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it is not a secret organisation.
In order to be a secretive organisation, you need to be smart, cunning, clever, and devious.
The SFA is devious, but it is not cunning, smart, or clever.
If it was any of those three words, we might actually have a decent refereeing structure in Scotland.
But we don’t.
Instead we have a devious organisation, which is actually blatant in it’s favouritism towards one club, and equally blatant in it’s clear, open, and obvious dislike for Celtic.
In reality, there is no conspiracy at play here.
There is nothing whatsoever that is secretive about the SFA’s behaviour.
They do not even attempt to hide it.
Just look at the fact John Beaton is about to referee his sixth game involving Celtic, especially when you consider our club’s reservations when it comes to this referee.
So, in my view, to label Celtic fans as conspiracy theorists is just lazy journalism.
It is a cop out.
Used with unerring regularity by the likes of Keith Jackson, Stephen McGowan, and Hugh Keevins.
Simply because they want to ignore the real elephant in the room.
The fact that the Celtic fans might actually be right about the SFA and Scottish referees.
But the opinions of fans, like me, and every other blogger out there, don’t matter.
For most journalists worth their salt, the whole refereeing debate in Scotland would be one big juicy story.
As readership of the main titles in Scotland continues to decline, for reasons unknown to most sane people, the SMSM continues to ignore the blatant realities of the game in Fair Caledonia.
Of which there are many.
But none more obvious than the open bias on display in Scottish refereeing.
In an article in the Scottish Daily Mail, which Joe McHugh over at Videocelts highlighted yesterday, Stephen McGowan once again chose to skirt the real issues when it comes to Scottish refereeing.
In fact, he instead chose to defend the fact that Scottish referees do not have to declare their allegiances.
By ridiculing the fact that English referees do have to.
This was the opening headline in his article:
COMMENT: Asking Scottish referees to disclose their allegiances won’t remove suspicion… it just paints a target on their backs
So, by definition, that must then mean that every referee in England has a target painted on their backs?
Or did he just mean that the majority of Scottish referees would have a target painted on their backs?
Because they support one club?
In other the words, the conspiracy theorists would have licence to voice their conspiracy theories openly, once it was obvious the majority of referees supported the Ibrox club.
What he really means is that Celtic fans would be the ones aiming at the targets painted on the referee’s backs.
Now, I’m not going to go into the details of McGowan’s article.
Joe McHugh has that well covered, and you can click the link provided earlier to see his dissection of the article in question.
I will only refer to certain aspects of it which are relevant to this article.
In Tuesday’s article, I discussed the fact that no Scottish referees will be at Euro 2024.
In it, I spoke about the fact that two small national leagues in Slovakia and Slovenia, were able to produce well respected professional referees.
Yet, in a league that has average attendances which are 8 times larger than in those leagues, the SFA persists with amateur referees.
The majority of whose allegiances are well known to all of us conspiracy theorists.
Yesterday, Stephen McGowan was at pains to defend that refereeing structure.
This particular segment of McGowan’s article really stood out to me:
Making referees declare the team they grew up supporting is not a recipe for honesty, transparency and fairness. It’s pandering to people who see conspiracy in the cornflakes when the milk turns.
Fans of Celtic and R*****s think they know which team John Beaton, Willie Collum, David Dickinson and Kevin Clancy support.
Whether they do or they don’t is neither here nor there. They think they do and that’s good enough for some to demand the exclusion of a referee from games involving their team in future. Or, if Forest have their way, any game involving a team which raises any hint of a conflict of interest of any kind. Just because they are incapable of looking at any decision objectively, they assume everyone else is the same.
McGowan felt it was necessary to dissect the English refereeing system after Nottingham Forest claimed Stuart Atwell had an affiliation with Luton Town.
Forest were aggrieved because Atwell, as VAR, denied them three penalty reviews, when they felt the incidents in question should at least have been looked at.
Their argument was that Atwell, who they stated was a Luton Town fan, should not have been VAR for a tie that he could influence in favour of their direct relegation rivals.
So, to you and me, the conspiracy theorists, that is in direct contravention of the rules the FA have in place when it comes to referee allegiances in English football.
To Stephen Mcgowan, Nottingham Forest are seeping desperation and entitlement from every pore.
Kind of like us Celtic fans, you know?
I’m afraid Mcgowan’s theory does not stand up.
The FA have these rules in place for a reason, they are to eliminate the possibility of bias.
They are to ensure referees cannot influence games to benefit their favourite sides.
Directly or indirectly.
And it works, most of the time.
Just not this time.
In my view, Nottingham Forest have every right to feel aggrieved.
They believe the rules have not been adhered to, and they are questioning it.
Which is their right.
Effectively, Stephen McGowan is saying that by making referees in England declare their allegiances, this is pandering to conspiracy theorists.
But by not making referees declare allegiances in Scotland, you are not pandering to conspiracy theorists?
Go figure.
Confused yet?
Once again, there is no conspiracy in Scotland.
John Beaton supports the Ibrox club, he drinks in a well know Ibrox bar.
He has a fan club at Ibrox dedicated to him.
This is not a conspiracy.
Neither is it a conspiracy that the Ibrox side stated vehemently they did not want Willie Collum refereeing games involving their club.
Because of his allegiances.
Nor is it a conspiracy that he has not refereed a single league game involving the Ibrox side since December of last year.
It isn’t a conspiracy that Celtic politely asked for the same thing when it came to John Beaton, and they’ve pretty much been told where to go.
Evidenced by the fact he is refereeing our game against Dundee at the weekend, directly after he also refereed his previous game involving us at Ibrox.
No conspiracies at play whatsoever here.
Just blatant, obvious, in your f£$%ing face facts.
McGowan then goes on to say it’s all fine and dandy in England, because they have a pool of 50 million people to choose from for their referees.
But that Scotland has population a tenth of that figure.
It still doesn’t stand up:
Disqualifying officials with a suspected or stated affiliation to Celtic or Rangers wouldn’t just stop them handling Glasgow derbies. In a nip-and-tuck race for the title, they wouldn’t be trusted with any game likely to impact the final outcome. Competent, qualified category-one officials would spend weeks on the sofa watching inferior referees handle the top fixtures by default because they grew up as an atheist in Forfar or Formartine.
Why doesn’t his argument stand up?
Well I’ll refer back to my article on Tuesday.
Where I discussed the referees from Slovenia and Slovakia.
Slovenia has a population of just over 2 million people, about 3.5 million less than Scotland.
Yet this country can manage to provide professional referees for it’s top league.
Slovakia has the same populace as Scotland, yet this country can provide professional referees for it’s top league.
These countries can manage to provide referees who get to referee European finals, and big European club games.
These countries can provide referees who regularly get to officiate at major international tournaments.
They are not hampered by the size of their populations.
Both countries have derby rivalries like Scotland, albeit on a smaller scale.
How can they do that?
More to the point, why can’t Scotland do that?
Why can’t the SFA reform refereeing in Scotland by making referees professional?
What is stopping them from doing that?
Stephen McGowan is at pains to point out that allegiances mean nothing, and that there are no conspiracy theories at play in the Scottish game.
So I guess that just leaves one other issue, doesn’t it?
Incompetence.
Something Scottish referees are constantly accused of.
Because they are amateurs.
We daren’t speak of bias, or unconscious bias in Scotland, but we can just about mention incompetence.
Make referees professionals, and then you can go a long way to eliminating incompetence.
Will it eliminate bias?
It’s unlikely, but it would be a start.
It might just pave the way for true reform when it comes to refereeing in the Scottish game.
And that, above all else, is what’s needed now.
Click here for – NO SCOTTISH REFEREES AT EURO 2024 TELLS IT’S OWN STORY, WHILE BEATON REFEREES YET ANOTHER MATCH INVOLVING CELTIC
Click here for – “WHY DON’T THEY JUST PLAY EACH OTHER EVERY WEEK? FORGET THE REST!” JEFF STELLING RIDICULES THE AMOUNT OF TIMES CELTIC AND THE IBROX SIDE FACE OFF AGAINST EACH OTHER
How many times are you changing yer name? Firstly RFC, then Sevco and now Paedo FC.
You ought to learn not to do yourself down so easy, no one knows how long your current team will survive this time!
If someone called me a ‘ conspiracy theorist’ I would not have clue number one what it meant and I would be quite offended because of that . On the other hand if I were to be called a ‘ truth seeker ‘ I would agree entirely and would be happy that someone recognised my intentions every single time ! As my old granny used to say about people with beards and moustaches ….ah , they are trying to hide something !
Perhaps McGowan, Kevin’s & Jackson et al could explain the following for me.
Scottish Cup semi-final Celtic player rightly gets booked for cheating, he pulled the Aberdeen player back. A few minutes later Aberdeen player pulls a Celtic player back – Celtic rightly get the free kick but there’s no booking.
Several minutes later the same thing happens again and Celtic rightly get the free kick and there’s once again no booking.
This same scenario happens a further 2 times, at least, and on both occasions Celtic get the free kick and there is no bookings.
Is this incompetence, cheating, or just a “conspiracy theory”? What I describe in that game are facts, and we all know who the ref was in that game, so does that make me a “conspiracy theorist”?
The likes of Keevin’s, Jackson and McGowan will never fully address such matters. It’ easier to dismiss folk like me as some sort of tinfoil hat nutter but they’d never say it to my face.
They spout such guff from the safety of their offices or a radio studio. They are every bit a part of the problem as the cheating officials are. And until those officials start explaining such decisions then I will continue to call them out as cheats, and their pals in the BritNat media as cowards.
Silence is compliance and it’s killing our game.
If Keevins, Jackson McGowan or any other Sports presenter/journalist challenge the establishment, they will be out of a job or at least their future opportunities in their chosen field will be severley restricted. Fact!
It makes my blood boil that people like Keevins, McGowan and Jackson can get away with spouting the nonsense that they come out with on their various platforms. Any reasonable Celtic fan have long known how biased the majority of refs, media and sfa are towards the club. We don’t need their crap about conspiracy or paranoia.
The cheating this season alone is there for all to see, never mind the archive of historical cheating we can refer to. The truth is, they are in no position to try to take the moral high ground. The willingness of the support to call it out at every opportunity is what really worries them. Hence the crap headlines about conspiracy. I will start listening to them when they start facing facts and writing about it HH
What a cheek the likes of Keevins, Jackson and McGowan have calling anyone conspiracy theorists. They choose to ignore the blatant cheating that has been going on towards Celtic from the year dot. I need no approval/disapproval from them. I know what I see with my own eyes. If they want to dismiss it thats up to them. They are as much in denial as the fans of sevco HH
Eric, in the interests of accuracy there’s a mistake over on the “Most Expensive Celtic Players” article. It states that Chris Sutton came to Celtic from Chelsea in 2020. That should be 2000.
Would have informed you on that article’s btl thread but it’s not open to comments.
Eric, in the interests of accuracy there’s a mistake over on the “Most Expensive Celtic Players” article. It states that Chris Sutton came to Celtic from Chelsea in 2020. That should be 2000.
Would have informed you on that article’s btl thread but it’s not open to comments.
CORRECTION: “The Most Expensive Celtic Transfers”
Hi Richard, I didn’t write that one. The Read network’s manager sometimes inserts these articles. You’ll note its not in my writing style, so not much I can do about it. The Read Network covers many football clubs outside Celtic, as well as an F1 page amongst other things.