Isn't it interesting that while there is absolute uproar on the dark side about the SFA sacking Shuggie Dallas - apparently for sending an offensive email (among other reasons) and the subsequent retirement of his pet poodle Dougie-Dougie for being a dirty liar, no-one among the laptop loyal, or within the blue-rinsed parlours of the Scottish Referees Association has mentioned other reasons for Shuggie's dismissal. I'll try to summarise them for you:
1. During his short time as Head of Referee Development (July 2009 - November 2010), there have been more complaints about poor refereeing than ever and the number is increasing.
2. Recently, (February 2010), 26 out of 31 Referees failed to pass the 30-question test to assess their knowledge of the laws of the game and how to interpret them. Apparently the pass mark was 80%. One ref apparently didn't even get 60% (I'll leave others to decide who that might have been!)
3. Shuggie decided 30 questions was way too many for these poor, harrassed, souls and he reduced it to 10 questions for the future. (Eh ? How does that improve knowledge ?)
4. Shuggie knew about the Dougie-Dougie lie, and even agreed to accept the piece of fiction and how they would present it to the press. Dougie-Dougie and Shuggie then blamed Steven Craven. Dougie-Dougie (when he told Neil Lennon the lie), and Shuggie when he failed to honestly explain the situation to the press.
Meanwhile, Assistant Referee Craven, who felt he'd been handed the shit end of the flagstick, promptly told the real story and resigned from the referees panel. So all three were found out for lying to various people and degrees of inaccuracy. Are we clear so far ?
Of course all hell breaks loose.
5. Shuggie gets pinged for the nasty sectarian email, Dougie-Dougie refuses to resign or apologise to anyone except Shuggie and the Catholics fall into apoplexy. As do the Celtic fans. Dougie-Dougie gets pulled up in front of the beaks - his pals in the Referees Association - and gets told he's a naughty boy.
6. The referees vote to go on strike to protect their honesty and integrity! At which point Shuggie boy makes an offer to Stewart Regan to call the strike off if he gets to keep his job (interesting - not just a hopeless referee-developer, a liar and a sectarian - but a blackmailer too!), at which point Regan finally gets the picture and goes postal! Shuggie bites the dust, the strike goes ahead with fairly minimal effect - due in part to the weather!
8. Dougie-Dougie retires from the refs panel - obviously he can't go on without his wee pal Shuggie.
It has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Lies, Cover-ups, strikes, nasty emails, blackmail. You couldn't make it up!
One small note: When I took the referees exam back in the 1980's, the exam contained 100 questions and the pass mark was 90 per cent. (I passed first time with 98 per cent, by the way). If you are short of a few refs, Mr Regan, I'll get my kit out again - I wouldnae mind the Huns game next week! ;)
Ok, so it wasn't such a wee note... but here's another one:
there is a lot more to come, yet - wikileaks has nothing as damaging as a fella named Phil MacGiollaBhain - a very impressive journalistic talent, not to mention a campaigner for what's fair and right and honest. My hat is permanently tipped in the direction of that young man and his cronies and SFA mole! Good work guys - keep it up!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
A New Attitude
I have come to a realisation recently. As a self confessed Celtic supporter, I am too quick to criticise players and managers of Celtic FC.
I have supported Celtic since I was a toddler in Scotland. I am now in my 56th year (work it out). I've seen some of the best Celtic players of all time (The Lisbon Lions, Tommy Burns - God bless him, Danny McGrain, Paul McStay, Kenny Dalglish, Charlie Nicholas and Henryk Larsson) and I've seen some of the middling and some of the very worst. But I have always been FOR the team and the managers - even the likes of Macari, Brady and Barnes had me on their side for most of the time. They were managers of Celtic - MY team!
Recently, I have become embroiled in discussions with other fans about Lenny and his coaching team and the current crop of players. I found myself criticising things that don't matter, as I did with Mowbray, Strachan, MON and every manager before them apart from Wim Jansen and The Great Jock Stein.
I'm not going to do it anymore! Don't get me wrong - theirs plenty of things I think are wrong with the club and the team at the moment - but I don't want to criticise anymore. I'm not going to be one of those happy-clappy fairweather fans who think we're the greatest club in the world - as long as we are winning.
Celtic are MY team. Always have been, always will be - that's the way it is. Despite the trials and turmoil - the pish poor performances and tactical decisions, and despite the knuckledragging attitudes of many of those around me during discussions, I am proud of Celtic, proud that I have only ever supported Celtic and proud that I have realised that loyalty, passion and love of The Celtic Way are what makes them MY team. And if anyone wants to fight about it - go somewhere else. I rest my case. If you don't like it, you can GIRFUY!
I have supported Celtic since I was a toddler in Scotland. I am now in my 56th year (work it out). I've seen some of the best Celtic players of all time (The Lisbon Lions, Tommy Burns - God bless him, Danny McGrain, Paul McStay, Kenny Dalglish, Charlie Nicholas and Henryk Larsson) and I've seen some of the middling and some of the very worst. But I have always been FOR the team and the managers - even the likes of Macari, Brady and Barnes had me on their side for most of the time. They were managers of Celtic - MY team!
Recently, I have become embroiled in discussions with other fans about Lenny and his coaching team and the current crop of players. I found myself criticising things that don't matter, as I did with Mowbray, Strachan, MON and every manager before them apart from Wim Jansen and The Great Jock Stein.
I'm not going to do it anymore! Don't get me wrong - theirs plenty of things I think are wrong with the club and the team at the moment - but I don't want to criticise anymore. I'm not going to be one of those happy-clappy fairweather fans who think we're the greatest club in the world - as long as we are winning.
Celtic are MY team. Always have been, always will be - that's the way it is. Despite the trials and turmoil - the pish poor performances and tactical decisions, and despite the knuckledragging attitudes of many of those around me during discussions, I am proud of Celtic, proud that I have only ever supported Celtic and proud that I have realised that loyalty, passion and love of The Celtic Way are what makes them MY team. And if anyone wants to fight about it - go somewhere else. I rest my case. If you don't like it, you can GIRFUY!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Dougie-Dougie retires!
No sooner had Hugh Dallas been fired for his part in the SFA sectarian email, liargate debacle and his attempted blackmail on SFA head honcho Stewart Regan, than his former compatriot, the contemptible Dougie Dougie McDonald has retired from the game. About bloody time!
I have no sympathy for either of them - or the other cronies kicked out of the SFA - because they brought it upon themselves by their own arrogant belief that they were untouchable and their pathetic attempts to convince themselves that they held the upper hand in the SFA. I never thought I'd say it, but thank God for the presence of a half-decent Englishman in Scottish football.
These disgustingly neanderthal attitudes, this incredible ignorance, this knuckledragging philosophy that if you sit at the top table, you can take all the good cakes away from the lower tables without having to face real justice have had their time.
I still think this is not the end of things. There are a few more skeletons in cupboards that need to be exposed before the year is out. I reckon the freelance journalist (Phil MacGiolla Bhain) who chased down this story and ensured it received the public airing it deserves has a few more bitter pills up his sleeve for the Black Lodge to swallow, yet!
I have no sympathy for either of them - or the other cronies kicked out of the SFA - because they brought it upon themselves by their own arrogant belief that they were untouchable and their pathetic attempts to convince themselves that they held the upper hand in the SFA. I never thought I'd say it, but thank God for the presence of a half-decent Englishman in Scottish football.
These disgustingly neanderthal attitudes, this incredible ignorance, this knuckledragging philosophy that if you sit at the top table, you can take all the good cakes away from the lower tables without having to face real justice have had their time.
I still think this is not the end of things. There are a few more skeletons in cupboards that need to be exposed before the year is out. I reckon the freelance journalist (Phil MacGiolla Bhain) who chased down this story and ensured it received the public airing it deserves has a few more bitter pills up his sleeve for the Black Lodge to swallow, yet!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Scottish Football Referees Strike.
I've had many conversations and indulged in a lot of correspondence on this matter over the last week or so. I am, frankly, astounded that this affair has resulted in a strike by the elite referees, let alone all of the additional furore it has attracted.
In the first place, the Referees say they chose to strike because they are tired of abuse and attacks on their integrity and honesty. Excuse me if I am pointing out the obvious, but it was evidence presented by the referees themselves that highlighted a lack of those virtues. Indeed, they were only found out because one of their own kind was backed into a corner by the internal machinations of the Black Lodge* (see footnote) when trying to cover their own arses over the "DougieDougie" lie.
The subsequent revelations about Hugh Dallas allegedly bullying match officials and refusing to accept match reports unless the referees changed them to reflect what he wanted them to portray, and the sending of offensive and/or sectarian emails from his SFA email account doesn't reflect too well on the SFA either. I mean, how could they allow this sort of thing to go on unchecked for so long ?
The strike, in my opinion, is less to do with respect and more to do with a siege mentality. TBL trying to protect their little empire in the centre of the establishment. The incredible concept of Hugh Dallas attempting to blackmail the new SFA Chief (Stewart Regan) by offering to call off the strike if he dropped the internal disciplinary proceedings against him regarding the sectarian email. If it wasn't Scotland, I wouldn't believe it!
Regan, despite his lack of experience in the matter of Central Scottish Sectarian matters, has earned a tip of my hat for his steadfast and sure "we don't negotiate with terrorists"stance. His insistance that employees of the SFA abide by their regulations and published policies must have shaken poor old Shug to the core!
I suspected that something huge was about to break in the media when he made comments suggesting that there were manouvres of a sectarian nature being made in amongst the shenanigans. Something about his tone and demeanour gave the game away and the tides turned on Dallas.
When you take into account the facts of the liargate affair - Dougie McDonald (the referee found to have lied to Celtic manager Neil Lennon) was let off with a censure by a disciplinary panel made up of former or current senior referees - one of them being McDonalds' own business partner. The obvious injustices of this system scream out for scrapping the entire system, lock stock and staff, and starting again - it is the football equivalent of the Burmese military junta counting the votes in the election where they were fielding the most candidates.
"Something not quite right here" would be a reasonable judgement of the whole affair and reasonable cause for a football club to question the appropriateness of the "punishement".
To compound their ineptitude, the referees then refused to negotiate an alternative solution to the strike. Perhaps they believed that the loss of television money for clubs, the additional cost of importing foreign match officials, and the embarrassment of the new SFA Chief having to give in to them would deflect Regan from pushing ahead with his program of changes. Childish, wilful, "it's ma baw an'ah'm takin' it hame if ye dinnae dae whit ah want" blackmail.
The funny thing is that they know they're dishonest, and they don't care. We know they are dishonest, and we are fed up with it. The referees even demanded tougher sanctions against clubs and for individuals that questioned their integrity to be heavily punished. Unbelievable! You might know that we lied, we know that you know we lied, but if anyone mentions it and asks how that can be a basis for trust, we're going to give them a kicking - and you're first!
Of course, the latest news is probably not as much of a shock as an event of earth shattering proportions - The Head of Referee Development, some say the grand master of TBL - Big Shug - fired, or resigned, depending on which paper you read, and several other SFA employees fired for their involvement in the sectarian hatemail shenanigans.
It is a good day for the SFA, despite the loyal laptop headlines. It is a bad day for Scottish Referees - shown up to be dishonest, sectarian, criminal (in that they attempted to control someone else's actions and seek gain by harrassment, coersion and threatening behaviour. But moreso than for any other group or individual, a very black day for The Black Lodge - their grip on the power strings at the SFA is beginning to slacken. The cracks are showing.
They will forever more be under the scrutiny of fans and unbiased press and will never be completely trusted with the honesty and integrity of referees again. One thing is clear though - this is not the end of it. One of the long-time allies, possibly one of the senior members of TBL - will be assessing any appeals against sackings which resulted from this whole sorry affair. This has only been the first skirmish - trust me - ther's a lot more to come!
I note that senior referees Craig Thompson and Mike McKendrick have been extremely quick to leap to the support of Hugh Dallas and implied that it will signal a drop in refereeing standards. Given that the subject of sub-standard refereeing has never been raised so frequently as during Hugh Dallas' tenure as SFA Head of Referee Development, that must be seen as either sour grapes and childishness, or - is it a veiled threat ? It certainly signals that it will not be the end of the dispute with referees. I say we fear no fight - bring it on. The sooner all the scumbags are out of running Scottish football, the better.
Footnote: * The Black Lodge is a term I invented to represent the Masonic (i.e. Orange Order) influenced, anti-Celtic / anti-catholic element that is encumbent within the entire Scottish establishment (not just football).
In the first place, the Referees say they chose to strike because they are tired of abuse and attacks on their integrity and honesty. Excuse me if I am pointing out the obvious, but it was evidence presented by the referees themselves that highlighted a lack of those virtues. Indeed, they were only found out because one of their own kind was backed into a corner by the internal machinations of the Black Lodge* (see footnote) when trying to cover their own arses over the "DougieDougie" lie.
The subsequent revelations about Hugh Dallas allegedly bullying match officials and refusing to accept match reports unless the referees changed them to reflect what he wanted them to portray, and the sending of offensive and/or sectarian emails from his SFA email account doesn't reflect too well on the SFA either. I mean, how could they allow this sort of thing to go on unchecked for so long ?
The strike, in my opinion, is less to do with respect and more to do with a siege mentality. TBL trying to protect their little empire in the centre of the establishment. The incredible concept of Hugh Dallas attempting to blackmail the new SFA Chief (Stewart Regan) by offering to call off the strike if he dropped the internal disciplinary proceedings against him regarding the sectarian email. If it wasn't Scotland, I wouldn't believe it!
Regan, despite his lack of experience in the matter of Central Scottish Sectarian matters, has earned a tip of my hat for his steadfast and sure "we don't negotiate with terrorists"stance. His insistance that employees of the SFA abide by their regulations and published policies must have shaken poor old Shug to the core!
I suspected that something huge was about to break in the media when he made comments suggesting that there were manouvres of a sectarian nature being made in amongst the shenanigans. Something about his tone and demeanour gave the game away and the tides turned on Dallas.
When you take into account the facts of the liargate affair - Dougie McDonald (the referee found to have lied to Celtic manager Neil Lennon) was let off with a censure by a disciplinary panel made up of former or current senior referees - one of them being McDonalds' own business partner. The obvious injustices of this system scream out for scrapping the entire system, lock stock and staff, and starting again - it is the football equivalent of the Burmese military junta counting the votes in the election where they were fielding the most candidates.
"Something not quite right here" would be a reasonable judgement of the whole affair and reasonable cause for a football club to question the appropriateness of the "punishement".
To compound their ineptitude, the referees then refused to negotiate an alternative solution to the strike. Perhaps they believed that the loss of television money for clubs, the additional cost of importing foreign match officials, and the embarrassment of the new SFA Chief having to give in to them would deflect Regan from pushing ahead with his program of changes. Childish, wilful, "it's ma baw an'ah'm takin' it hame if ye dinnae dae whit ah want" blackmail.
The funny thing is that they know they're dishonest, and they don't care. We know they are dishonest, and we are fed up with it. The referees even demanded tougher sanctions against clubs and for individuals that questioned their integrity to be heavily punished. Unbelievable! You might know that we lied, we know that you know we lied, but if anyone mentions it and asks how that can be a basis for trust, we're going to give them a kicking - and you're first!
Of course, the latest news is probably not as much of a shock as an event of earth shattering proportions - The Head of Referee Development, some say the grand master of TBL - Big Shug - fired, or resigned, depending on which paper you read, and several other SFA employees fired for their involvement in the sectarian hatemail shenanigans.
It is a good day for the SFA, despite the loyal laptop headlines. It is a bad day for Scottish Referees - shown up to be dishonest, sectarian, criminal (in that they attempted to control someone else's actions and seek gain by harrassment, coersion and threatening behaviour. But moreso than for any other group or individual, a very black day for The Black Lodge - their grip on the power strings at the SFA is beginning to slacken. The cracks are showing.
They will forever more be under the scrutiny of fans and unbiased press and will never be completely trusted with the honesty and integrity of referees again. One thing is clear though - this is not the end of it. One of the long-time allies, possibly one of the senior members of TBL - will be assessing any appeals against sackings which resulted from this whole sorry affair. This has only been the first skirmish - trust me - ther's a lot more to come!
I note that senior referees Craig Thompson and Mike McKendrick have been extremely quick to leap to the support of Hugh Dallas and implied that it will signal a drop in refereeing standards. Given that the subject of sub-standard refereeing has never been raised so frequently as during Hugh Dallas' tenure as SFA Head of Referee Development, that must be seen as either sour grapes and childishness, or - is it a veiled threat ? It certainly signals that it will not be the end of the dispute with referees. I say we fear no fight - bring it on. The sooner all the scumbags are out of running Scottish football, the better.
Footnote: * The Black Lodge is a term I invented to represent the Masonic (i.e. Orange Order) influenced, anti-Celtic / anti-catholic element that is encumbent within the entire Scottish establishment (not just football).
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