News

Levein’s Rant After Ibrox – Spot On

|
Image for Levein’s Rant After Ibrox – Spot On

Everyone who believes in fair play should be 100% behind the comments made by Dundee United manager Craig Levein following his side’s defeat at Ibrox at the weekend.

Generally in football it’s a fact of life that the bigger teams tend to get the majority of big decisions from match officials. You can literally watch any league in the world and see examples of
this happening on a weekly basis, whether it be in a high profile league like England or Spain with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid getting preferential treatment, or in some of the
so-called lesser countries………yes, that even includes Scotland!

In most cases this could probably be explained by human nature. If for example you are refereeing a football match and something happens so quickly that your own mind is not 100% certain on the
correct decision to make, you are left in a difficult position. If you then add 60,000 voices shouting for it to be awarded one way into the mix, voices belonging to people who are staunchly biased in favour of their own team, it’s makes it even more difficult, and in many cases the easiest thing to do here is simply to appease the masses and go with their ‘recommendation’.

Personally although I’ve been left raging countless times over the years by this sort of thing happening, I think it’s difficult to criticise a match official for taking this approach, as the decisions are still being made as honestly as they can be when there’s doubt involved, even if they end up being wrong from time to time.

However, big problems occur when there are certain decisions taking place for which there can be seemingly no logical explanation – decisions like some of those that so incensed Levein and his club at Ibrox on Saturday. It’s this sort of thing that has people using words like ‘bias’, ‘corruption’ and the fiercest ‘expletive’ that can be used in connection with match officials, ‘cheat’.

Of course, many of those coming out with this sort of criticism are heavily biased towards their own clubs and are merely giving off a knee-jerk reaction of frustration without actually thinking about what they’re saying. I’m quite sure we’ve all been there – five minutes after a match in which our team have lost due to a dodgy last minute penalty, ranting and raving over our beers about that ‘cheating referee robbing us again’. I’m also quite sure that having had time to digest what actually went on and perhaps watched it again on TV, we’ve been forced to admit that our criticism was a tad harsh at times and in some cases, completely unjustified.

But it has to be said, over the past two or three seasons in Scottish football, I don’t think I can ever remember the amount of inconsistency shown in games involving Rangers or Celtic being quite so obvious. As Hearts fans we have seen it first hand, both from the footballing authorities and also the media – as soon as another team looked like challenging years of Old Firm supremacy, they all closed ranks and did everything in their power to make sure that the ‘young upstarts’ ultimately failed in their quest. And they succeeded too, with a series of horrendously one-sided refereeing performances during the winter of 2005/6 playing no small part in ensuring that the league championship remained in Glasgow that year. No-one at any point has suggested this was the SOLE reason that Hearts’ challenge faltered (we all know it was down to the Romanovs), but it should not be underestimated just how much stuffing was knocked out of it by this series of injustices.

Now look at Dundee United’s position this year. I think it’s fair to say that they were pretty much robbed in the CIS Cup Final at Hampden (also against Rangers) and now they have potentially seen their club missing out on the big cash windfall of Europe due to yet more unjustified treatment at Ibrox. It seems to me that any team who looks capable of being better than the Old Firm clubs (and United have been in that category this season in the head-to-heads I’ve seen) ends up having to play against the match officials as well as the opposition to get results. And because none of the teams in this league are significantly better than anyone else, this becomes an almost impossible task.

Aberdeen achieved regular success in the 1980s because their team was MUCH better than the rest over a period of a few years, but until another team in the SPL can produce a team to compare with that, a team that is so superior that no number of dodgy decisions can turn the result against them, this fruitless struggle will continue . Unless of course, something is done to seriously attempt to address these inconsistencies…….

What can be done? Well, what would help for a start would be if the media started reporting on some of these disgraceful inconsistencies in a slightly more truthful manner. Far too often, just like their SFA counterparts, the predominately west-coast-based journos continue to sweep the likes of what happened on Saturday under the carpet – or either that or they go on the offensive against those who dare to speak out against it in order to protect the interest of their biggest customers. Just think about the way they went to town on George Foulkes after his rant about the Andy Davis decision at Tynecastle a few years ago for example. This isn’t good enough – as Levein says it’s about time someone there had the balls to come out and tell it like it is, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll then start to see some action being taken.

I’m not about to start saying we should be screening match officials for being potentially biased or anything like that though. I think the answer is much more simple than that – technology. Surely now we can start using TV evidence for consultation on decisions that directly affect results, like goals being disallowed or penalty awards? Some might say that even if we do go down this route it may still be down to the referee’s discretion about when this would be called upon, but surely it would be a step in the right direction regardless? It’s the only way I can see honest decisions consistently being made in matches involving certain clubs, and these could then be easily communicated to the paying public so that there can be absolutely no dispute whatsoever.

Of course, there will be some who would say that introducing this sort of thing is effectively killing part of the game, namely controversy. To be honest I could see where that argument comes from as we do all like a good conspiracy theory now and then, and having certain things being open to interpretation, but in my view you’d still have that in football even if we did use video replays for certain decisions. It’s such a passionate sport that controversy would rarely be far away. And most importantly of course, the field would be levelled and everyone would have a chance to win the SPL, not just two clubs – that has to be good for our game as a whole.

At the very least though, the authorities have to start taking a more sympathetic view when the likes of Levein start to make the sort of comments he did on Saturday. There has to be more freedom of speech in Scottish football if those in power continue to turn a blind eye to some of the gross injustices being dealt out on the field of play. They can’t have it both ways.

I would encourage everyone in the game to get right behind Levein and his club if the SFA decide to come down hard on them for this (which seems inevitable). All he (and his chairman) did after the game was speak the truth, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was delighted to hear someone finally coming out and telling it like it is.

Once again the opportunity is there for every club in the league to stand up and be counted in the fight for fairness. The question is, will they take it this time? Or just shy away into their cowardly shells like the last time their support was needed. We’ll see……….

Share this article

MrH

Come on the famous!

18 comments

  • StockportJambo says:

    I’d like to think that something would be done, but the reality of it is that the SFA will simply close ranks, fine Levein and/or Utd for his comments, and quietly brush it under the carpet. It’s what they always do, and I’ve yet to see any indication that things will ever change. Until the SFA’s offices are moved to Inverness or somewhere like that we will continue to see “state-sponsored” bias in favour of the Old Firm. The irony of it all is that Levein will be fined for “bringing the game into direspute”. How reputable are the SFA/SPL now anyway?

  • MrH says:

    Just as Foulkes and Hearts were. It’s pathetic.

  • roadrunner says:

    sour grapes 🙂 im sure your teams have had afew dodgey decisions for and against them …rangers were denied 2 penalties against motherwell and nothing was said, levein is just a big mouth from a small team enjoy europe well your holidays cause its the only way youll get there

  • MrH says:

    You’re missing the point entirely. This isn’t just about one isolated match – it’s about years of the same thing happening consistently involving the same teams. Interestingly enough, the Rangers fans I know who actually go to their games admit this……….

  • imcd says:

    This article sums up the situation perfectly without resorting to conspiracy theory and pure paranoia as IMCD would have done. I see the ref is now openly admitting at least some of his errors no doubt in the hope that this gesture will help the issue disappear (and given the TV evidence probably the only option available). It will not, of course, get the 3 points back.

  • MrH says:

    What really annoys me was perfectly illustrated on the radio tonight – they were discussing how it will generally even itself out as Celtic will get similar breaks at some point as well. That may or may not be true, but even if it is this isn’t doing the likes of United any good is it? Their whole season has been scuppered because they’ve been cheated out of two results that could have seen them winning a trophy and qualifying for Europe. On both occasions they were better than their opposition but other factors took it away from them. Everyone needs to back United here and openly speak out against this now, otherwise it will just continue to be the way that it always has.

  • DigitalTwisted says:

    Roadrunner, what an absolute clown you are.

  • wishaw bhoy says:

    other than the statement Craig Levein made about McCurry knowing it was a penalty and his flat refusal to award it (thus suggesting he was a cheat ) the good Rev has today ,, courtesy of his admission that he made the aforementioned mistakes ,, almost admonished Mr Levein and Mr Thomson of any notion of bringing the game into disrepute !! a ploy to defuse a potentially explosive situation that the powers that be could well do without ??? maybe ,, but in a way I,m glad it happened ,, I dont have the answers but wholeheartedly agree with the assertion that the time has come to recognize the need to do something before it rips the heart from the game all together ,, every single club regardless of stature or size is entitled to parity and fairness ,, if not ,, whats the point ?? a question which I believe is the only charge Mr Levein,s guilty of …………….

  • imcd says:

    That?s it exactly Mr H, it?s Rangers and Celtic and nothing else matters ? the guys on the radio, whoever they were, probably didn?t even notice the significance what they were saying it is so ingrained in the Scottish game. It?s interesting to note that when Celtic and Rangers have good teams they (with the odd exception) win everything and when they have relatively poor sides, as they do at the moment, they still win everything. If we really did have a level playing field up here then that just wouldn?t happen?

  • MrH says:

    Exactly, although I would also add that the attitude of the other sides in the league also has a lot to do with it. But then if the others saw that the field was being levelled then they’d soon start to believe in themselves more and start really going for it. Rangers have looked poor against almost every side in the league this season – that just never used to happen 10 years ago, but still then look, on paper at least, to be much better than the rest. They aren’t.

  • R.K says:

    Roadrunner is a clown. Best to ignore him mate. This is not the first time McCurry has given a decision in favour of Rangers. A couple of years ago against Aberdeen he failed to see an infamous kick by Ricksen on one of the Dons players, in the same game he failed to give a stonewall penalty to Aberdeen which would have lead to the dismissal of Barry Ferguson. More recently he allowed Barry Ferguson to juggle the ball in his hands before scoring past Hearts in the CIS cup Semi. These are the ones that have been brought to my attention, I would be very interested to see just how many ‘mistakes’ he has made in Rangers games, now that this has come under scrutiny. I wasn’t even aware he refereed that game against Aberdeen. Lets not forget, he booked 9 Celtic players in the very first Old Firm game of the season, 7 of which i couldn’t understand. Brown and Naylor being the only two who justified bookings IMO. I think there are one of two scenarios. A) McCurry is a cheat (very probable, given his Rangers past) B) The SPL/SFA told/had a gentleman’s agreement with the referee with the understanding that Rangers MUST WIN that game against United at any cost because of the controversy surrounding that fixture. I think both are quite possible to be honest. There was massive criticism of the SFA/SPL for not rescheduling the United fixture before the Uefa cup, and had Rangers lost that game, their would have been an even greater outrage within the media for not rearranging that fixture. Either way, it is blatant bias towards Scotland’s shame, and not for the first time.

  • MrH says:

    I’m not sure who refereed the CIS Cup final, but anyone criticising Levein and United for speaking out against this can only be doing so with the blue-tinted specs on. Even those who ARE staunch Rangers fans can surely see they’ve been given preferential treatment here. Incidentally, Levein’s interview is top-drawer entertainment!

  • R.K says:

    Kenny Clarke refereed the CIS Cup final. Its also not the first time he has given Rangers preferential treatment either. I was always convinced he was a Rangers supporter in disguise Because he did it so often on a consistent basis. I fully support Levein and his comments. I’ve seen a couple of his interviews on youtube, the best one has to be the one he did for the BBC. Top drawer.

  • Specs Haver says:

    Its a clever and calculated set of comments from Craig, actually. He hasnt used the ‘C’ word to criticise the ref, but has implied that he ‘bottled it’ (same point described by Mr H). And in light of McCurry’s admission today that he would have given the penalty and goal if he had seen the incidents as clearly as the TV saw them, it’s hard to justify the SFA fining Craig. To be fair to McCurry (gosh, did I just say that ?) I can see how both he and the linesman may have thought that the ball hit the Utd player rather than Weir – that one is surely a perfect example of how technology should be used to decide the outcome. The ball is immeditelay out of play (in the net), and if the camera catches the incident then the 4th official can advise the ref via headset in front of the 2 managers. By the way, I see our friend the Swedish ref is doing the UEFA final – he famously booked Samaras in the last minute for “going to ground” at Parkhead against Barcelona – whereas most Scottish refs would have given the penalty for the same reason Mr H describes – 60,000 screaming for it. It’ll be interesting to see how Rangers players react to having a strict “non-homer” in charge.

  • DigitalTwisted says:

    Lose the game?

  • MrH says:

    RK I think you’ll find that Kenny’s actual allegiances are very different to what you believe…….!

  • R.K says:

    I have heard that Mr.H but I think its a rumour more than anything. His decisions against Celtic were always very poor, especially in the OF games. Very, very poor. The two for me that stand out the most are the 2003 CIS Cup Final and the Rangers Vs.Celtic at Ibrox in 2004.

  • MrH says:

    More than rumour mate…

Leave a Reply to StockportJambo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *