Five days before matches are to be played, Willie Collum is refusing to release the names of the match officials for the SPFL Premiership matches on December 26.
The appointments will have been made, the referees, assistants and fourth officials will have been notified, travel arrangements made, some involving overnight accommodation but Collum is refusing to put the information up on the SFA website.
The matches were put in place on Friday but at 10am on Saturday the names of the match officials has still to be revealed.
Normally the information for weekend fixtures is published on a Tuesday morning, for midweek fixtures the match officials are usually announced the previous Tuesday but with the sham of accountability and transparency in refereeing opened up by recent events it seems that Collum isn’t even capable of allocating officials to take charge of matches.
Between December 22 and January 2 there are four rounds of Premiership fixtures to be played, that requires a fair bit of planning for part-time officials even though they enjoy full time incomes.
For the families of John Beaton and David Dickinson there could be complimentary tickets for a match on January 2 or they might have to ask around to watch their favourite team. Collum seems to be keeping it all a secret.
Before Hampden, Alan Muir and Frank Connor would have been scheduled to be heavily involved in the festive fixtures, with those two effectively suspended Collum will be shuffling things around with some VAR appointments in for longer shifts at Clydesdale House.
While the spotlight this week has been turned on Muir and Connor after Phil Clement pointed the media messengers the direction to dig in, ultimately it is all on Collum, someone more intent on cultivating his public image as one of the good guys.
When Keith Jackson and Kris Boyd are praising the same person it is as big a red flag as you are likely to find.
After last night’s horrific display from Chris Graham in the Motherwell v Kilmarnock match Stuart Kettlewell spoke up for many involved in Scottish football:
In the game I raised a concern, we had the same referee [Chris Graham] up in Dingwall the other week and there was over 60 minutes of dead time, I felt there was probably the same amount tonight. The game needs to breathe a wee bit more.
It becomes carnage. That’s the point we get to in the game of football. Questionable is an understatement. I always try and be honest. I am sick and fed up of it.
Collum appointed Graham, getting a live televised match is a sure sign of climbing the ranks
I’ve been told there’s been three key errors in our last five games. I try to move on and hope better times are ahead then it come to tonight and it’s by far the worst of them all. It’s quite incredible.
Him being sent to the monitor suggests he’s got it wrong. I’ve been given the heads up from Kilmarnock’s bench that this is going to be overturned. And the ref watches it several times and thinks that he’s got it right.
I’m concerned for the game in this country if we’re deeming that type of thing a red card. We want it to get better. Decisions like that are not moving it forward.
Kettlewell is hardly a rebel, Derek McInnes had similar thoughts on the performance of Graham who became a laughing stock with the match live on Premier Sports.
Collum is a product of the SFA’s approach to refereeing. He had no affinity or understanding of the game, absolute contempt for footballers yet enjoyed a very lucrative second income for the best part of 20 years.
With recruitment severely limited and any aspiring officials from east of Airdrie realising that there are better things to do with their time you are left with a rump of under talented and overly ambitious types like John Beaton, Nick Walsh, Steven McLean, Don Robertson and David Dickinson.
They get token appointments from UEFA but nowhere near the significant matches, even though VAR can bail out most of their mistakes.
It looks like it will be Monday or Tuesday before the officials for Thursday’s matches are released, with Muir and Connor to sit it out until January the thin ‘talent pool’ is being spread even wider.
Attention is already on the January 2 appointments at Ibrox, all of those involved will know exactly what is expected of them, after all they were central to a 74 match run covering three different managers when no penalties were awarded against the Ibrox club in the SPFL Premiership.
CLICK HERE for SFA appointments
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1 Comment
by Dando
What date is the replay? (;-0)
HH