There’s an Edinburgh derby on Sunday afternoon, on the same day the one-time New Firm clash happens at Pittodrie.
Celtic will then take the next step towards what they hope will be a world record ninth Treble when they face Hibs in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup on Saturday. High-octane matches with a lot at stake – but the outcome of all of them is in danger of being distorted by the fact that match officiating in this country has sunk to an all-time low.
Willie Collum, the SFA’s head of referees, must regret the day he ever entered into his periodic review of controversial incidents for the benefit of an online audience. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time but Collum’s review is no longer about transparency. It has become a vehicle for offering apologies to those affected by inefficiency on the part of the officials overseen by the man in charge.
But managers and fans don’t need expressions of regret. They need people on the park and in the VAR room to do their jobs properly. And not give the impression that they are trying very hard to think of ways to disallow goals. If it takes the best part of four minutes to come up with the view that Sam Dalby didn’t score a legitimate goal to put Dundee United 2 -1 ahead of Hibs last Wednesday night, then it looks like that’s what you’re trying to do.
And if the referee can’t see that St Mirren’s Killian Phillips left one on Hearts ’ Jamie McCart at Tynecastle on the same night – overturning his own decision to send the player off because the boys in the VAR room came up with an alternative view of what constitutes a red card for violent play – then do me, and everybody else, a favour.
If it isn’t the failure to award a penalty to Hearts against Rangers at Tynecastle, a decision found to be wrong by the Key Major Incidents Panel, then it’s the denial of a goal for Celtic against Hibs at Easter Road last weekend. And the mistakes are indiscriminatory. It’s not just the Old Firm at the centre of rows. Match officials and VAR operatives are sub-standard wherever you look.
But the business of whether Celtic’s Alistair Johnston had let the ball go out of play before crossing for Daizen Maeda to score what the Japanese thought was an equaliser against Hibs last week could get messy. Brendan Rodgers’ request for conclusive evidence of how that decision was arrived at has, so far, gone unanswered.
If there is no evidence then the benefit of the doubt is with Celtic – and the goal should have stood. If conclusive evidence exists, where is it?
The delay in response makes it seem like officialdom is trying to think of a good one for public consumption. Mistakes that have a material influence on the outcome of matches take the whole subject of match officials’ competency to a new, disturbing level.
This has nothing to do with accusing anyone of suspicious motives. It has everything to do with not overlooking examples of sub-standard workmanship.
We’ve already had the first cup final of the season tarnished by the error of not awarding Rangers a penalty for the pull on Rangers’ Vaclav Cerny’s jersey by Celtic’s Liam Scales, a claim dismissed by VAR. What further damage might be done before the season’s over? And is the mis-use of VAR actually the clear and obvious error in our midst?