Celtic fans have long viewed the SFA and refereeing in Scotland with suspicion.
There has been many instances over the years where the SFA have been caught with an anti-Celtic agenda.
Jim Farry holding back the registration of Celtic striker Jorge Cadete springs to mind.
Or what about an SFA president looking raging presenting Celtic with a trophy when Scott Brown lifted the Scottish Cup for the umpteenth time in his Hoops career?
Or even Hugh Dallas being caught sending anti-Celtic sectarian emails whilst being the head of referees?
So would it shock anyone if Eric Knott’s opinion that the national association appointing a referee to officiate Celtic games because he hates the club was actually true?
That’s the claim made on the Trinity Tims as refereeing standards in Scotland come into question again after Celtic beat Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup two weeks ago.
SFA referee Don Robertson’s Celtic ‘pattern’
Eric was speaking about Don Robertson as the SFA whistler’s record came into question again.
After booking Daizen Maeda after a Kilmarnock player dived and feigned injury, that appeared to be the last straw for the Read Celtic writer.
The referee is said to be a Celtic fan and Eric reckons he’s doing a sterling job trying to overcompensate for it.
Eric told the Trinity Tims, “When you look at professional referees in leagues where they have to declare allegiances, we talked about this previously on the podcast, and we talked about the Barcelona, who are a team who has a lot of possession, like us.
“And we did a foul count in that particular game. I don’t know exactly what it was, but if I refer to the game yesterday between Aston Villa and Bournemouth, Aston Villa had more possession to Bournemouth. They won the game 4-0. It was 20 fouls to Bournemouth, eight to Aston Villa.
“And this tends to be the pattern in most games where, in the top leagues, where professional referees are refereeing, and allegiances are declared, and there’s no bias in any of the games.
“It stands to reason that the team who has the most possession is the team that is going to be getting chased by the team that doesn’t, and they’re more likely to commit fouls. So there’s a pattern there from Don Robertson.
“If you wanted to delve deeper into every game that he referees involving Celtic, nine times out of 10, you’re probably going to find out that the foul count was Celtic, had more of the foul count than the opposition that they were playing against.”
Don Robertson ‘simply does not like Celtic’
So is the pattern of decisions given against Celtic by Robertson on of assistance to Rangers or because he’s just not a very good referee?
It’s neither.
Eric continued, “And that just seems to be the pattern that this guy has. I’m sure somebody like Alan Morrison has already got into it, and could go ahead deeper into it, but this is what Don Robertson does.
“And as I said, I asked the question, is he the most inept referee? Well, I don’t think it’s ineptitude, I just think it’s bias.
“And he just simply does not like Celtic. He’s put in charge of Celtic as often as he is because he doesn’t like Celtic. He makes decisions off the cuff like he did yesterday and it does in my head.”
The truth is, referees in Scotland are just not good enough. There are far too many decisions that they are still getting wrong despite having VAR in place.
As for Robertson, is he biased or incompetent, or both?
We’ll let you decide.
