A week after taking charge of a UEFA Champions League qualifier David Munro is reported to have resigned as a referee.
The 44-year-old was promoted onto the lucrative UEFA circuit during the summer, last season he took charge of three Celtic away matches during a two month period.
Getting onto the UEFA list is the target for most aspiring referees, opening up access to business class travel, very generous expenses and match fees, something that Douglas Ross used to take full advantage of.
On July 10 Munro was in the Faroes as Klaksvik beat Luxembourg champions Differdange 2-0 before going through to the second round following a 0-0 draw away from home.
For some reason Munro decided that it was time to bring an end to his secondary career.
Disgraced former Police Officer Graeme Stewart and Ross MacLeod were on the line in the Faroes with Boclair Academy PE teacher Grant Irvine taking advantage of the school holidays to pick up the match fee as Fourth Official.
Munro appears to be another of the talentless officials promoted way beyond his ability by Crawford Allan, after stepping down it leaves the SFA with five referees on the UEFA list with Willie Collum’s brief appearance at the 2016 European Championships the only reward for the standard of Scottish refereeing.
🗣️ “Ross County’s hard task in facing the champions is about to get even more difficult!”
Ross County are down to 10-men against Celtic after a VAR check. What do you make of the red card? ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/l25FxzaGC8
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 4, 2023
⚽️ David Munro was going to be one of six Scottish refs in the pool of 290 UEFA referees for 2024/25 season
3⃣ There are three categories of UEFA referee; Elite, First & Second.
Criteria for categorisation includes performance, experience, fitness & language skills🥇 32 Elite… https://t.co/N913gV1vXZ
— Scotland’s Coefficient (@scotlandscoeff1) July 19, 2024
🗣️ “Is that enough, really?”
Celtic were disallowed an early goal in Dingwall due to a foul in the attacking play. What do you think of the decision? ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/33EBVDaGzm
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 4, 2023
Munro turned in a lost boy performance when Celtic visited Ross County last November with two ridiculous decisions in the opening 10 minutes summing up his complete lack of understanding of the game.
In the 10th minute home defender James Brown committed a brutal over the top attack on the lower leg of Yang Hyun-jun in full view of Munro who reached for a yellow card.
It was so bad that Andrew Dallas had to intervene with the punishment upgraded to a red card.
Five minutes earlier Liam Scales looked to have given Celtic the lead only for Munro to disallow the effort for a run of the mill challenge from Oh Hyeon-gyu which was punished with a free kick.
Despite that horrendous performance Munro was put in charge of Celtic’s visit to Kilmarnock in December and the January match away to St Mirren.
More of the same is expected in the season ahead, with Allan stepping down following a Vote of No Confidence from the SPFL clubs a worldwide recruit campaign came to the conclusion that Collum from the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association was the best candidate for the job.
CLICK HERE for Munro’s appointments last season.
CLICK HERE for the many faces of James Succulent Traynor.
CLICK HERE for Ibrox closure announcement.
