As you will be aware, Celtic F.C. have written to the S.F.A. twice within two weeks demanding answers as to why refereeing decisions have gone against our club.
The aftermath of the first incident at Tannadice has now resulted in the match linesman, Steven Craven, resigning from his position with the S.F.A., due to the fact he did not want any part in the ‘cover up’ that followed the match. It was initially reported that he informed the match referee, Dougie McDonald, that a penalty he had given just moments earlier had been awarded mistakenly. On Friday 29th October, Scottish F.A. Chief Executive Stewart Regan released a statement detailing the findings of a Referee Committee meeting, at which Regan’s report on the decision was considered. The statement asserted that McDonald was correct to overturn the penalty decision and did so without prompting from Craven. This is entirely at odds with the initial account of events given by Hugh Dallas in a BBC interview on the Tuesday following the match, where he claimed Craven had brought McDonald’s error to his attention – as well as declaring that Neil Lennon had found the explanation of the decision ‘acceptable’, something Lennon later denied. Will we ever find out who else within the offices of the S.F.A. were aware that Craven played no part in the rescinding of the penalty decision, yet were still happy for him to be made a scapegoat? Will the truth of this matter ever be admitted by the S.F.A? It seems unlikely.
During an interview on Clyde 1’s ‘Superscoreboard’ on Wednesday 27th October 2010, recently retired referee Stuart Dougal commented on the incident. During the show, he openly addressed Craven saying, “Stevie, if you’re going to go, go quietly”. Why should Steven Craven go quietly? What has he got to hide? Is this part of an ‘old pals’ act’ where he is not supposed to come clean about what is going on in Scottish football?
The second incident referred to earlier occurred at Celtic Park in our match against Rangers. The referee, Willie Collum, awarded a penalty kick to Rangers. Television replays show firstly, that he was deceived by Kirk Broadfoot into awarding the penalty and, secondly, that he did not have a clear view of the incident and was in no position to award the penalty in the first place. This penalty award effectively handed the match to Rangers, who were already leading by two goals to one at the time.
As we are all aware, these are not ‘freak’ occurrences. To evidence this point, I will mention two further examples (two of only many, as I am sure you are aware) from last season. Firstly, a decision that favoured Rangers and secondly, one that was to the detriment of Celtic.
Rangers played Motherwell at Fir Park on 10th February 2010, with the match ending in a one-all draw. Motherwell had a goal ‘chopped off’ when leading the match by one goal to nil; this second goal would have almost guaranteed a Motherwell victory. Television replays show that the goal was legitimate and should have stood. The linesman flagged for offside, even though the player was around two yards onside. Motherwell manager Craig Brown was livid when he watched television replays and the television pundits analysing the match, Colin Hendry and Terry Butcher, both agreed that the goal should have stood. Rangers gained one point from this match, when it could easily have been a defeat resulting in them obtaining no points.
On 16th January 2010, Celtic played Falkirk at Celtic Park, a match that ended 1-1. There were three majorly contentious decisions in this match. Firstly, a Falkirk defender handles the ball inside the box – no penalty. Marc Antoine Fortune is pulled down in the box by Brian McLean – no penalty. Artur Boruc handles the ball around one yard inside his area – the referee, Alan Muir, awards Falkirk a free kick in a dangerous position. Although Falkirk did not score from this free kick, at that stage in the game it could have cost Celtic dearly. Speaking after the game, Falkirk manager Eddie May said, “Overall, I think it was a fair result but I think they (Celtic) should have had a penalty.” As a result of these decisions, Celtic drop two points.
Celtic F.C. currently find themselves in an extremely difficult position. We believe that there is a clear bias in the footballing establishment in this country towards Rangers F.C. It is our opinion, based on discussions with many people, that the board of directors and the majority of the Celtic support believe this to be true also. The media respond to our assertions by dismissing us and claiming that Celtic supporters are ‘paranoid’. They tell us how these things ‘even themselves out over the course of the season’. They laugh at us, they mock us. The time has come for us to stop accepting that this is the way things are.
All of these events have led us to question: ‘What can Celtic Football Club do to combat this issue?’ We have spoken with scores of supporters who are demanding that the board ‘go for the throat’ of the S.F.A. – unfortunately, up until now, there has been little consensus among the support regarding the best, and most effective, way of doing this. We only have one chance to win the right for equality within Scottish football. If Celtic gather enough video evidence to show that we have been the victim of bias, it can merely be brushed aside and blamed on human error. It would also be extremely difficult to prove in a court of law. We believe this to be the primary reason behind Celtic not openly saying that they feel we are discriminated against.
As Celtic supporters, what can we do to help our club highlight the situation? We believe that the only way we can start to get people to sit up and take notice is by beginning to target away matches for boycott. The first game we propose to carry out this boycott at is our next trip to Rugby Park to face Kilmarnock. We are awaiting clarification of the date of this match but believe it will be Tuesday/Wednesday, 1st/2nd February 2011. We feel that, by boycotting this fixture, we would make a statement to the chairmen of the other S.P.L. clubs that they would be next. Our allocation is around 8,800 tickets. We understand that the tickets will be priced at £25 for an adult. If no Celtic fans attend the match, Kilmarnock would lose in the region of £150,000 (should 6,000 Celtic fans have attended the match) to £220,000 (should all our allocation be sold) in ticket sales alone. They would also lose out on a substantial sum generated by selling food and beverages to our supporters within the stadium.
At present, Scottish football finds itself in a dire financial state. Celtic are in the enviable position of being financially stable, despite the fact we lost out on tens of millions of pounds through failure to qualify for the Champions League (with a ‘little bit of help’ from the S.F.A.) Is it a coincidence that the bias seems to be getting worse as Rangers find themselves in a terrible financial state, with the club being deemed ‘unsellable’ and a potentially huge tax bill about to land on the doormat at Ibrox?
Most of the other S.P.L. clubs rely on the huge travelling support of Celtic and Rangers to keep them afloat. Suddenly, a choice between doing nothing, remaining silent and facing going out of business, or, alternatively, agreeing to such things as an investigation into the conduct of our referees, will be a simple one to make. They will no longer have the luxury of sitting back and not speaking out as it will be to the detriment of their own club. They currently do not want to ‘rock the boat’ by making accusations of bias, as they need to try and keep both Rangers and Celtic fans travelling to their stadiums in huge numbers.
Through extensive investigation, we have discovered the overwhelming consensus amongst supporters at present is that they would happily support the boycott, as long as the entire support was unified behind it. Some supporters, quite rightly, don’t want to turn on the television to watch the match and realise there are 4,000 – 5,000 Celtic supporters present when they could have been there themselves.
The purpose of this letter is not to ask you to guarantee that you will support the boycott. We are not asking anyone to put their necks on the line and say ‘I will definitely not be attending the match.’ We are asking for you to give us a provisional answer as to whether or not you are prepared to boycott the match, should we receive a positive response from the vast majority of regular away-match attendees.
We plan to have a cut-off date, by which time it will be determined whether or not the boycott is to go ahead. The proposed cut-off date is Monday 24th January, 2011. We hope to be in constant contact with Celtic F.C. to determine how ticket sales are going. Should there be a large amount of tickets purchased (meaning that the proposed boycott was unsuccessful), this would give you, the supporters who had expressed your support for boycotting the match, ample time to collect your tickets from Celtic Park, order them online or by telephone and receive them in time for the match.
As you will all be aware, the only time the away section is close to being filled to capacity when Celtic play at Rugby Park, is when the game is a potential league decider. This means that, should the proposed boycott be unsuccessful, you will have no problem whatsoever of obtaining a match ticket directly from Celtic F.C., meaning you will receive your ‘credit’ on the ‘Away Ticket Scheme’ for attending this match.
We would like as many as possible of you to respond to the issues raised in this letter by e-mail, to celticboycott@gmail.com, as soon as possible. We ask that you state what supporters club, if any, you represent and how many fans would usually travel to a game at Rugby Park with you. We also ask that you give us a contact name and telephone number should we need to contact you to obtain/provide further information regarding the proposed boycott. Even if you are not prepared to support the boycott, could you please also send us an e-mail containing the above information? This will help us determine interest and likelihood of success. It would also be helpful if you could provide us with your reasons for not supporting a boycott and any alternative suggestions you may have to try and resolve this issue. Should the proposed boycott prove to be unsuccessful, we would wish to notify you all by text message and e-mail on the cut-off date, so that you can arrange for your own tickets, and those of your club members, to be purchased well in advance of the match.
We are a diverse support: people from all walks of life and from many different backgrounds, incorporating people with many different principles and opinions. If we can all put aside our differences and stand together as one on this issue, we will put pressure on to the other clubs to question the bias in this country. The silence from the other clubs is allowing this situation to continue unchallenged from outside Celtic Park. We, the Celtic support, will do the only thing that will make them take notice: hit them where it hurts most – their bank balances.
Immortalised inside Celtic Park, there is a famous quote from Jock Stein that reads, “Football without fans is nothing.” It is about time the men who ‘call the shots’ in Scottish football realise this. The one thing we should not do is do nothing. Do we need to wait until Rangers have won five, six, seven league titles in a row before we stand up for ourselves and our club? Is it too much to ask supporters to miss one match for the greater good of the club? We can only do so much in the stands to encourage the team. Regardless of how fantastic the away support is at times, we cannot expect our team to play twice as hard and twice as well as every other team in the league, just to overcome biased decisions and be on a level playing field. We are simply not allowed to win in some matches, due to the officials. This needs to stop and it needs to stop now.
Yours in Celtic,
A Bhoy. |
