A Precedent Worth Following

A pre-World War I Scottish international rugby referee once made a statement which, the more time passes, becomes ever more credible. This gentleman, whose name escapes me said, of English protests at a disputed try in the inaugural rugby international back in 1871: "As a general rule, I find the team which is making the greater noise about a dispute generally has less grounds for complaint".

I commend this viewpoint to Mr Neil Lennon and the other of "the Celtic Family" who are feeling hard done by today, following Willie Collum's award of a penalty in Sunday's Old Firm clash at Celtic Park.

Now Celtic complaints about decisions going to Rangers is nothing new, I suppose it's been a recurring theme since 1888 and the needle is now wearing a bit thin.

It's not as if the decision turned the game - Rangers were already 2-1 up and in control of the game. So, no penalty, Rangers still win 2-1; what is there to complain about.

This comes hard on the heels of the penalty Celtic were given, then had taken away from them at Tannadice the previous week. Again, had the decision gone their way and had Celtic scored from it - they'd have won 3-1 rather than 2-1.

A period of silence regarding refereeing decisions from within Celtic Park might be no bad thing. But, you know how it is, once a victim, always a victim - it's a wee bit like Scottish politicians and the Westminster parliament - it's always their fault.

Another old maxim from football's past was the player who, disputing a goal against his side, told the referee: "Ref, that was never a goal".

Only to be told: "Well you look in tomorrow's paper and see if it's a goal or not".

It is written into the Laws of the Game of Association Football: "The referee is the sole judge of fact". So, it doesn't matter what you think, what I think, what everyone inside Sunday's 60,000 Celtic Park crowd thought - only Willie Collum's opinion mattered and in his opinion, it was a penalty.

We may think him wrong, it doesn't matter. He was the man who had the balls to make that call, he made it honestly and without favour. Give him credit for making it and remember, if we've not got referees, we've not got football.

What's the alternative to referees? A toss of the coin at every disputed incident? A "square go" between the rival captains (Davie Weir v Shaun Maloney, come-on!!)?

Let's get the lawyers involved: each match would last ten years, by the time Celtic have taken their appeal to the European Court of Justice then the UN, would cost several million pounds and would end up with a result nobody wanted.

No, let's leave it to referees, like democracy, it's better than the alternatives.