Craig Thomson

[ONeils4oyarder]

The whole 'compliance officer' thing is a load of shite

[Kmcalpin]

Certainly this latest non decision over MacGregor brings the entire disciplinary system into disrepute.  It'll be interesting to see exactly what the next citation by the Compliance Officer actually is.  A standard has now been established.

[underboyleheating]

The panels MacGregor decision has effectively given players the green light to kick opponents. Trial by Sportscene is no more, as kicking a player on camera but out of view of the officials is now legit.

[Al B]

There's no such thing as precedent or standard in these. Each case is judged on it's own merits completely separately from any other.

[Wellfan1984]

23 minutes ago, Al B said:

There's no such thing as precedent or standard in these. Each case is judged on it's own merits completely separately from any other.

Only because no one has contested said on precedent.  Just needs one club to challenge a failed appeal/ban to CAS to blow the whole thing up for good.

Won't happen though as no club has the baws to go against it.  Best we get is angry statements from management then they think job done (see Clarke's interview on Dicker).

[Kmcalpin]

The whole process is shrouded in mystery .  A previous incumbent stated that his staff skimmed through TV highlights on a Monday morning to identify any incidents (presumably focusing on anything that had interested the media commentators).   I now read that a panel of 3 ex referees seem to screen the TV highlights first and if they collectively deem an incident to be worthy of further action then its passed to the Compliance Officer.  In the case of MacGregor only 2 of the 3 seem to have thought it was worthy of referral. 

[Welldaft Mk1]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

The whole process is shrouded in mystery .  A previous incumbent stated that his staff skimmed through TV highlights on a Monday morning to identify any incidents (presumably focusing on anything that had interested the media commentators).   I now read that a panel of 3 ex referees seem to screen the TV highlights first and if they collectively deem an incident to be worthy of further action then its passed to the Compliance Officer.  In the case of MacGregor only 2 of the 3 seem to have thought it was worthy of referral. 

Now I would not dare to suggest that the law of averages suggests in this country that one of the three may have leanings toward a particular club. Of course we know they would be totally impartial as they are complete professionals......

The problem will arise (and it will) when a Well / Killie / St Mirren / Livingston / Hamilton * player brushes against a player and gets a 3 year sentence or a 2 to 3 game ban. Of course the Record and Sun will focus on that for 2minutes and it may merit a paragraph. 

* delete as appropriate 

[mcguru]

18 hours ago, underboyleheating said:

The panels MacGregor decision has effectively given players the green light to kick opponents. Trial by Sportscene is no more, as kicking a player on camera but out of view of the officials is now legit.

That is indeed the problem. So the laws of the game are for everyone, is it just Scotland interpreting it this way?

I referee Sat morning youths and I will now make a point to say to teams and coaches....do NOT go out kicking players just because you see them doing it on Sportscene.

In my opinion the law needs to be amended and there is a process to do that. I would say kicking a player should be a red card, end of.

The current process for review means it will either be a red card or nothing at all, cannot retrospectively yellow card a player.