‘Farcical, petty, pathetic’ Michael Stewart hits out at SFA intimidation

Michael Stewart has hit out at the dangerous precedent set by his Hampden ban.

On Friday news emerged that the former Hearts, Hibs and Manchester United midfielder had been banned from working at Hampden.

Stewart is a regular pundit for BBC Scotland and Premier Sports. He is also regularly on co-commentary duty which gives him access.

It was a minor issue on Friday, a side-line.

By lunchtime on Monday Stewart had found his ban extended to the Hampden ‘footprint’ covering the car park followed up by a statement from the nameless Scottish Senior Referees.

The refs statement mentioned integrity and professionalism. From a group that contains John Beaton, David Dickinson and Steven McLean. Today isn’t April 1.

It was an incredible escalation by the SFA.

IAN MAXWELL- THE SFA DICTATOR

There are lots of well paid under performing suits within the SFA but issues like this are driven by Ian Maxwell.

As a former player turned director and CEO he was supposed to bring fresh thinking to the SFA.

Maxi has all the personality of Neil Doncaster, the CEO of the SPFL.

Premier Sports took the ban in good faith on Saturday, giving it some knock about treatment. Stewart was in the car park for Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

Maxwell wasn’t amused. He couldn’t let it wash past.

Incredibly he jumped in two footed with all the grace of a journeyman from Ross County, St Johnstone or Partick Thistle.

Stewart had his ban extended to the Hampden footprint. Suddenly the story was snowballing.

It is farcical, farcical. The weekend, the fallout is petty, pathetic. What sort of country are we living in where an institution sees fit to ban somebody that they don’t agree on?

That, fundamentally is what this is about.

I’m not going to sit here and play some sort of victim because I’m big and ugly enough to take it on my shoulders but there’s a strain that comes with it, and for everyone else around me as well.

I take a lot of  pride  in trying to be straight and honest with my assessment of things. Clearly, that upsets people in power sometimes.

Ultimately, I’m not here to appease them. I’m trying to be honest, and I think that’s important.

There’s a serious issue here and a  dangerous  precedent set by the SFA. They see fit to ban me for things that I’ve said.

There’s a false narrative that’s been peddled claiming there has been over a year of  complaints  and conversations between the refs and the SFA, who are unhappy by how I’ve approached things.

My retort to that would be: why on  earth  did the SFA not decide to discuss this with their broadcasting partners at Premier Sports?

SFA CREATING MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS

Being diplomatic Scottish match officials aren’t very good.

Maxwell knows it, Willie Collum manages it, FIFA confirmed it. For 104 matches FIFA have called on 170 officials, none of them from Scotland.

Stewart calls out the issues. The inconsistencies and the decisions that defy the Laws of the Game.

There isn’t a week that goes by without decisions being made that defy logic.

The penalty that Hearts got against Motherwell last week was plain wrong. Matthew MacDermid was convinced to change his mind by McLean on VAR.

At Hampden on Sunday MacDermid refereed Celtic v St Mirren. He was miles off it, getting in the way of play and using the disadvantage rule at all times to upset Celtic.

Maxwell, Collum and the SFA don’t want those issues raised.

They like nice BBC pundits like Steven Thompson, Leanne Crichton and James McFadden. Those of the dishwater type.

The treatment of Stewart highlights how petty and sensitive the SFA are to their sub-standard match officials. What can you expect under the leadership of Collum?

The most significant set of post split SPFL fixtures are about to get underway.

Instead of banning Stewart the SFA should be demanding higher standards from their blundering match officials led by the Hugh Dallas clone that is Collum

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