Will SPL ref strike solve anything?

Men in black mouthpiece moans again

Stuart Dougal obviously hasn’t been getting enough press and publicity of late. Writing a column for the Daily Record allows him to stand amongst the “greats” of the Scottish game like Mark Hately and Billy Brown but with circulation figures of the newspaper falling, is it enough to feed his ego?

There’s a recession on but Mr Dougall manages to supplement a big wage from a big audit company whilst still getting his share of the Scottish football spotlight. His column for the Daily Record sees him acting as the unofficial spokesman for referees, sticking up for them at every point but being allowed to dish out the personal attacks that an official representative of the SFA would not be able to dole out.

Given that Dougal is sticking up for an organisation that doesn’t allow any questioning of their decisions or enters into debate about their mistakes, its pretty unfair. The latest Dougal broadside unsurprisingly puts the SFA party line at the front as usual:

“Referees are close to calling for a day of industrial action. If people are fed up with the decision-making of our referees, maybe they should face a Saturday afternoon without any decisions being made at all.

“I know the strength of feeling and solidarity that exists on this issue and if there is a belief the endorsement of a day of action is the only way to get their point across, it will be taken.

“It has already been discussed by senior members of the refereeing movement if unhelpful comments from managers such as Gannon continue. This warning should be taken seriously.”

That sounds like a threat and the sort of chat that would result in an immediate yellow card from a referee. The only response to Dougal would be “boo hoo Stuart, boo hoo”

Talk of people being fed up and then warning them of the consequences is the wrong tact to take and not conducive to resolving an issue. People are possibly fed up at paying a lot of money only to have their football ruined by bad decisions from the ref.

Ask Celtic fans who twice this season have went away from home and been denied at least two stone-wall penalty kicks (although the Hoops would probably have missed them).

Ask Rangers fans who felt they were denied a penalty in their recent 1-0 defeat at Pittodrie.

Ask Hearts fans who saw Michael Stewart sent off which was later rescinded and were denied a clear cut penalty in injury time at Hamilton which may have rescued a point.

Ask Motherwell and Dundee United fans what they felt of the refereeing performance in their 2-2 draw.

Ask any fan in the SPL and you will be given a lengthy list of errors and mistakes that have ruined an expensive Saturday or Sunday out.

Managers can get sacked because of refereeing decisions. Players can lose out on win bonuses. Fans can feel as though they are cheated out of their hard earned money by attention seeking diva’s intent on being noticed.

Whatever Stuart Dougal feels about the treatment of referees, everybody else in football can say the exact same. When the outcome of a match depends on so many variable factors, it is inevitable that frustration will creep in when things go against your team.

It is very difficult for referees, no one will deny that.

With increased TV coverage, multiple camera angles, the amount of money at stake and lets be honest, society becoming an angrier and tenser place, every decision is now questioned in great depth.

It is the exact same for players though. The Scottish media will pillory players and managers for mistake but will still give refs an easy ride, especially compared to their English equivalent which will criticise refs when it matters. If the SFA want to improve matters, a bit of humility and transparency would go the right way.

Refs may argue that they need to be authoritative to keep players in line but the us and them attitude shown by the men in black (red /yellow depending on their outfit) is only helping to create a bigger divide in Scottish football.

If the SFA are genuine about improving the relationship, gagging this media puppet may be a good way to go about it.

Should retired refs be so vocal about the profession?

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