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I don’t think hearing the audio from that night will tell us much that isn’t already pretty obvious to be honest. VAR saw a ‘potential’ handball which obviously wasn’t but Andrew Dallas or whoever it was likely knew that John Beaton is too scared to give any big call against Celtic and would take the ‘safer’ option by giving them a penalty. And it took Beaton literally seconds to watch that and give it when it would have been impossible to be able to determine that in that time. Celtic run the show and the whole thing stinks. I’m not talking about daft conspiracy theories like lodges, dodgy handshakes and knowing nods, I’m talking about that club having such a hold on football, media and society that they are running it through fear and intimidation. Celtic caused a refereeing strike in 2010 for far less than what happened at Fir Park earlier this month and since then they’ve had almost everything their own way. And on the odd occasion that they haven’t the officials in question have been absolutely hounded by them, their fans, the managers and their media stooges. John Beaton being the most obvious but there have been others. The reality is that Celtic Football Club are an absolute cancer on Scottish Football.

Id rather have Will Still than his brother Stan....... 😉😉😉

What he Said.

Typical SFA appointment, keeping Scottish football in the dark ages. Need to get rid of the shite running the game before we can look forward.

There are so many teams these days Curacao could make it out the group stage. He's had multiple chances as far as I'm concerned and his bolt is well and truly shot.

Sam Nicholson has one strong hand to punch it 20 yards!

It is clear from that that Beaton simply erred on the side of caution and gave the decision in Celtic’s favour. As I said, that tells us nothing that wasn’t already obvious. Beaton is compromised by Celtic and is scared to go against them given past experiences when he has. There was nothing “clear and obvious” about that incident yet VAR thought it was enough to intervene and Beaton obviously had made his mind up to award the penalty as soon as he got the shout, hence the almost immediate awarding of the penalty. Like I said, the whole thing stinks.

"There´s also interest from Rangers, who have been monitoring the situation closely" and hoping we lower our price to 50 quid, presumably.

There are 2 aspects to the discussion. I highlighted examples that support your view that our Officials are useless and above sanction. I don't believe they are corrupt. There are stills of the Ibrox penalty claim that suggest minimal contact at best. Whether they were available at the time is debatable. For what it's worth, viewing 'live' I thought it was a penalty and on balance still do. For me, it was not as bad a decision as the penalty donated to Celtic. Not as clear cut. The other issue is who is currently the dominant power in the running of Scottish football? Celtic beyond doubt for which I also highlighted examples. Rangers have been in that position in the past. But not currently. MJC is spot on. To lump them together at this time only helps deflect attention from Celtic. Both would like to rule the roost but Celtic are winning that race for now.

The penalty shout at Ibrox was just as clear cut. It was 100% a penalty. We would have had a penalty had we been playing any other team ( apart from Celtic ) in the league but it was a clear penalty. You mention Livingston. They suffered the injustice of the season with the hand ball that was not given against Fernandez at Ibrox. Again, that would have been given as a penalty had they been playing any non OF team. Nobody cared about it because it was just Livingston and it was not title deciding but it was a terrible decision and it certainly did in some way contribute to their relegation. You have highlighted examples that actually help prove my point.

Agree with much of that. But I would suggest that, funny as it was at the time, Rangers demise years ago effectively handed the opportunity for complete control to Celtic. And they grabbed it with both hands (assisted to a degree by Aberdeen's greed). To the extent that they are currently much the dominate power. At times in the past it has been Rangers in that power situation and your Traynor comment is so relevant. The Media will always cow to the OF. But at the present time Celtic are well and truly in control of how Scottish Football is governed. Otherwise why have they escaped punishment on so many occasions? Why is a blind eye being turned to three pitch invasions in a row, or at best excuses being made on their behalf? Why is the damage their fans cause to away Grounds ignored? They are not so lightly treated when it is UEFA calling the shots. Speaks volumes. Although even there Lawwell managed to get a UEFA Board position which I think he still holds having been proposed by the SFA. Despite him having stood down from the Celtic Board. Normally that UEFA position would have ended at the same time as he gave up his position at Celtic. You might be correct. Rangers could well have benefited from the sort of decision Celtic got had they been playing us in that League situation. But they weren't so that comparison is purely hypothetical. Admittedly Rangers probably got away with our penalty shout at Ibrox, but that was less clear cut than the Nicholson shambles. As for Officials and VAR generally. All teams suffer from their incompetence. As opposed to corruption. The Newell hand ball goal could have cost Celtic the Title. Rangers lost silverware last season because of an acknowledged refereeing/VAR error. Livi were more or less relegated right at the start of the season because of some horrendous decisions. Gave them a mountain to climb.. As a fact, fans of every team could point to incorrect decisions that cost their Clubs dearly.

No I can’t agree that it is an ‘Old Firm’ issue. Not in today’s game and today’s world where Celtic clearly have more clout and control than Rangers do. They have the media, the authorities and politicians on their side in a way that Rangers simply don’t. Time was Rangers were the ‘establishment club’ in the country and I think if you look at the 1990s in particular they got far more favourable refereeing decisions than anyone else, Celtic included, but just because something was the case once doesn’t mean that it is still the case now. The game has changed, the ‘Overton window’ has shifted and now through excessive PR, crying victim, hounding referees to the point of getting some thrown out the game and striking overall it is Celtic who are refereed to a different standard than everyone else. And their support are becoming more and more entitled and emboldened with each passing year. You see it in the way they behave even towards their own club at times and that’s before you mention numerous pitch invasions, overcrowding away stands and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to stadiums. And yet you never hear a peep from the media or the authorities about it unless they can bring another set of fans, usually Rangers, into the equation to reduce the spotlight on Celtic, but even if they can’t bring Rangers into it they manage to mention incidents at lower league matches to try and balance it out. And that is why it will keep happening with Celtic and their fans. Finally, you say that had it been Rangers we were playing and they were going for the title then the outcome with that penalty decision would have been exactly the same, well I’m not sure it would have been, certainly not with Beaton as the ref. Put it this way, had Beaton given Rangers a penalty under those circumstances which enabled them to win the League any deny Celtic the title then he wouldn’t referee another game. He would have been hounded by Celtic and their media mouthpieces in a way much, much worse than he was over the actual incident. And Celtic would be pushing all the way for the audio to be released, probably getting their legal teams involved until they got what they wanted, which they absolutely would get. I’m not saying that Rangers don’t have a lot more sway in what goes on and more media exposure and support than us and clubs like us, because they clearly do, but Celtic are way, way out ahead of them on all fronts in this day and age.

We signed Fadinger and McGhee without a manager pretty early last summer, and the likes of Just, Watt, and Longelo were brought in very early, in time for the training camp in the Netherlands if I remember right.

I share your frustration with this incident and it does highlight a wider problem in Scottish Football but you can't objectively frame this as a Celtic only problem. It is an OF problem and has been for decades. I agree that John Beaton was put in an impossible situation. I thought he refereed the game really well and was literally a couple of seconds away from being able to say job done. I thought the Maeda penalty call, he got right, the Slattery penalty call was also right. His onfield decision at the end was also spot on. I have no doubts that as he was walking to the monitor he would have either consciously or subconsciously been thinking about the personal implications for him and his family of overturning the decision. Unfortunately for him in this particular instance, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Had it been Rangers we were playing and Rangers were going for the title the outcome would have been EXACTLY the same. Both OF's clubs have used intimidation and the weight of numbers to get what they want for as long as I have been watching football. To frame it as a Celtic only problem (or a Rangers only problem) dilutes the argument. It is based on a predudice that favours one club or the other. They both use power and influence to get what they want and have both been very successful at getting what they want. It is why they keep doing it. Jim Traynor was hired as the Rangers communications man to use his knowledge of the press in Scotland to do exactly this, spin the narrative, put pressure on the authorities in Rangers favour. Rangers and Celtic are a collective. They are both a cancer on Scottish Football.

Ok I didn’t notice capital letters on my first read and was confused. After a few other posts I now understand. Having a Will Still and a Just on our books could throw me for a loop when reading some posts

What I find surprising is that Beaton is getting all or at least most of the flak. Not excusing Beaton but Andrew Dallas is the one that created the whole injustice. Even though the supposed error was not Clear and Obvious. More like Fabricated. Beaton could have stuck by his original decision of course but he was put in such a position that I don't think any referee would have overridden Dallas. Add Beaton's previous history with Celtic and the outcome was assured. Dallas must have known that. If I was Beaton...and thank God I'm not.......I would be raging at Dallas for putting me in such a situation. For his part (and more so because of the part Dallas played) Collum will refuse to acknowledge any error. Fortunately for us, other than a point lost, the penalty did not change our situation. Draw or lose we still had to win at Easter Road. Hearts were the team most hard done to, especially as they had a much more valid penalty claim denied a few days earlier. Despite all that crap about errors balancing themselves out over a season, those two decisions decided the outcome of the League. Our Officials and our Association should be ashamed not only about the way things played out at Fir Park but their rewriting of history regards the disgraceful ending at Celtic Park a few days later. Given the recent actions of many Celtic fans at Ibrox, Fir Park and Celtic Park I wonder what sanctions will be handed out? Not holding my breath though as I suspect all the ever increasing noise coming from the SFA about pitch invasions not being unlawful in Scotland is a prelude to taking no action whatsoever. If anything, Rangers and Motherwell will be warned about not taking ample precautions, we will be fined for the pyros, and the Celtic Park invasion will be viewed simply as understandable exuberance with Hearts fined for leaving early and not completing Media duties. As MJC says, that is the extent to which Celtic control things in Scotland. Media included.

I don't think he was shite but he is not as brilliant as some would have you believe. I think the time for him to move is right. I think he's a bit like Theo Bair, I think we got the best out of him. Hope he does well for Anderlecht.

Could it possibly be that the fee quoted as "north of 2 million" was plucked out of the air because 2 million was what Rangers were prepared to pay and we will undoubtedly want more than that. The article is all about the teddy bears and you can sense the complete disinterest in both the player and his current club once it becomes clear he is going elsewhere. I certainly hope we will get a fair amount more than that.

Fee appears very low when you compare hibs got £7 million for Bowie and he scored much less goals.

I think we should put you on a boat and Fred Scuttle it.

No with age comes wisdom, i was referring to his attempts at humour.

100% this" bin the blazers" the SFA/SPFL are not fit for purpose.

You mean we are over the hill?

To be fair Most people over 35 have no idea either.

Why would we want him in the 1st place, weve been down the scottish manager route, and decided we want something better to move the club forward, oh and for me hes not that good a manager. A few good seasons and got a top 6 finish this year but after the season weve had can you really see the board appointing him, no feckin chance.

Loved it when he slapped the bald guy on the head........whoops......wrong Beni Anyone under 35 will have no idea what I am on about

Why would John McGlynn leave Falkirk and join Motherwell. They’re arguably as big a club if not bigger than we are.

Clarke definitely took a shambles of a Scotland outfit and turned it around into a team that was difficult to beat and that the players wanted to part of. And no doubt he did well to qualify for our first Euros. The way we performed in those finals was embarrassing and 100% down to his tactics. I would have punted him then, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt given it was our first Finals in 200 years or whatever. When we got to our second Euro Finals our performance was even worse. Literally no lessons learned from the first debacle. That, for me, was when Clarke absolutely had to go. Fair play for what he had achieved, but he had more than reached his limit as a coach by then. Anyone who watched or World Cup qualifiers could see were dead lucky to make it. Outplayed in multiple games with only moments of individual quality rescuing us in spite of the insipid tactics played. In that last game against Denmark, they battered us for most of the game. As happy as I was to see us win, and with some cracking goals, our 30% possession in must-win home tie says it all. Even with 10 men, they were the better side. It was a miserable performance with miserable tactics once again rescued by 3 moments of individual quality. A classic Clarke approach, and with no change in approach to squad selection, I expect every game to be a grind in the US regardless of how far we do or don't get. Now was the time to bring in someone more progressive and take full advantage of some of the more talented players we have available.

That’s the national game fucked

I hope Lennon MIller wasn't planning to play in the 2030 Finals: "The Scottish FA has announced that Steve Clarke has signed a new deal, extending his stay through to the 2030 World Cup" As terrible SFA decisions go, this must be one of the worst.