Turning the tables on the Ibrox paranoia

One of the paranoid Ibrox facing social media accounts has highlighted the different standards of refereeing that Celtic are subjected to.

The replies piled in on Blow The Whistle, a very professional looking Twitter account.

It came just a few days after Willie Collum admitted that Alan Muir had no evidence to disallow a ‘goal’ from Daizen Maeda against Hibs on February 22. Had the laws of the game been applied correctly the scoreline would have been 2-2 in the 83^rd minute. Celtic have only lost two matches this season.

Blow The Whistle earned plenty of traction with a detailed breakdown of how many fouls it takes for SPFL Premiership clubs to have a player booked, the results were stark, and sadly predictable as far as Celtic fans are concerned.

Despite dominating virtually every domestic match an incredible number of free kicks are awarded against Celtic.

Typically with 65% or more possession in a match Celtic will have more than half of the free kicks awarded against them.

It is a pattern repeated regardless of who is the referee.

In a bid to break up play and earn a breather opposing players fall to the ground whenever a Celtic player closes them down, most of the time the referee will oblige with a free kick.

That halts any momentum, allows opponents to regroup and breaks up the flow of the game, the statistics are overwhelming.

I don’t have access to all the stats but I’d guess that the majority of fouls awarded against Celtic are against the forwards, especially the wingers as Nicolas Kuhn and Maeda track back, Celtic’s defenders are rarely tested.

All eyes on Celtic Park today🔍

Nick Walsh takes charge of today’s unmissable Scottish Cup QF tie between Celtic and Hibs.

Given the stakes, a critical question emerges: How consistent is the refereeing in Glasgow?

Fouls per Yellow (FYP) gives us an idea.

Let’s look.. 👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/j7ws9e2eyv

— Blow The Whistle (@whistlereport24) March 9, 2025

The Scottish Premiership Baseline: A Story of Relative Balance (3/11)

Looking at the Fouls Per Yellow (FPY) across the Scottish Premiership so far this season. Generally, we see a degree of balance between a team’s own FPY and their opponents’ FPY. This suggests a reasonable… pic.twitter.com/22EvwrCjtr

— Blow The Whistle (@whistlereport24) March 9, 2025

Celtic at Home: The Anomaly (4/11)

We’ve established the baseline. Now, let’s look at Celtic’s home games:

🟢Celtic’s FPY at Celtic Park: 11.91
🟣Opponents’ FPY at Celtic Park: 3.5

That’s not just a slight difference; it’s a chasm. This means that referees officiating in the… pic.twitter.com/wwVtydiSRA

— Blow The Whistle (@whistlereport24) March 9, 2025

With Ange Postecoglou taking charge of Celtic in the summer of 2021 there was a big change in how the hoops played the game.

The new look side went to Aberdeen at the start of October looking for their first away win, they were up against a very formidable opponent in Bobby Madden who refereed the opening match of the season when Andy Halliday raked his studs down Callum McGregor’s calf without any card being shown. Halliday and Madden are top lads and podcast buddies.

According to Sky Sports who covered the match Celtic had 61.4 possession but managed to commit 27 fouls during Aberdeen’s 38.6% of time on the ball.

Assuming a generous 60 minutes of the ball actually being in play fouls were awarded against Celtic basically every second minute. Jota was one of the worst offenders! Almost every time he approached Calvin Ramsey the Dons defender hit the deck, Madden obliged every time.

Aberdeen committed just 10 fouls. A foul every six minutes.

It is astonishing that a team with almost twice the amount of possession was fouling three times as frequently but as we’ve learned over recent seasons every effort is made by opponents and match officials to slow Celtic down. There are plenty of officials like Madden around.

In most home matches Celtic have 70-80% possession, almost as predictable the foul stats are much more even.

Beating Dundee United 3-0 last month the hoops had 76.1% possession but committed seven fouls compared to nine from the visitors.

Beating Aberdeen 5-1 on February 25 Celtic had 69.2% possession but the foul count was eight against 13.

Referees are very, very willing to award free-kicks against Celtic but they don’t have the evidence to be handing out yellow cards.

Anyone looking for patterns in refereeing issues ought to start by looking at penalties conceded with one club managing runs of 69 and 73 SPFL Premiership matches without having a penalty awarded against them.

During his 10 months as manager, with Connor Goldson in the team Micky Beale didn’t have a single SPFL Premiership penalty awarded against his side.

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