It was about time Ange came out and said it.
The referee standards, not just on Saturday, but overall, are just shambolic.
And the Celtic gaffer was pulling no punches when talking about referees and their duty to protect the players, “Wherever I’ve managed, in every country I have managed in major tournaments, we sit down at the beginning of the year and the referee show their vision of things they’ll be looking for in the coming years. “And the rules since I started managing 25 years ago, there’s always been little tweaks.
“But the one consistent theme always is they always show us visions of tackles they deem to be reckless or dangerous and they will always get punished.
“Because it’s a big part of the protection of the player. This year was no different and if you show footage or visions of that tackle, that’s exactly the vision we get shown that that’s going to get handled by the referee.
“And I’ll be honest, I told some of the lads towards the end of the game to just not bother going into tackles and to just look out for themselves. Because I didn’t want any more injuries because I just didn’t feel that there was control of that environment.”
Presenter, Paul Cooney just replied, “Wow.“
What an admission by Ange. And what a damning indictment about the state of refereeing in this country that a manager has to tell his players to not tackle to protect them.
Sporting integrity indeed.
