What the SFA have done by handing Brendan Rodgers a suspended sentence for calling match officials “incompetent” is complete the construction of a theme park for conspiracy theorists.
The work was started by their co-architects, the SPFL, when they rearranged Rangers’ postponed game against Dundee for the Wednesday after the Old Firm derby next weekend. Celtic fans claimed that decision was based on bias and intended to keep Rangers’ players fresh for the Ibrox showdown.
Rangers fans now believe Celtic’s manager was shown leniency at his disciplinary hearing to ensure he’d be in the dugout opposite Philippe Clement for next weekend’s vital derby. The SFA went for compromise with Rodgers. Old Firm fans only understand conflict. Such as the row caused by appointing referee Don Robertson to take charge of Celtic’s game at Livingston this afternoon, three days after Rodgers was tried for suggesting the official was incompetent when Celtic lost at Tynecastle on March 3.
Some might say that’s pure coincidence. Most of the Celtic support will call it provocative. Now the only way the situation can be made even worse would be to appoint John Beaton to referee next Sunday’s game between the clubs. They couldn’t, could they? A toxic tone has been set for the remainder of a season in which the two main prizes, the league title and the Scottish Cup, will be decided by games between Celtic and Rangers.
It is an atmosphere that is unhealthy and unattractive but unavoidable at the same time. The SFA and the SPFL have pandered to the paranoid by their decision-making because Old Firm fans look at life with a suspicious mind and the resolute intention of trusting no one. At least it has brought them back to life. Celtic and Rangers supporters regard the interruption of the league season for international matches as a source of extreme irritation.
I know this from personal experience, having listened to so many radio callers express their disbelief that the title race could be halted for something as trivial and meaningless as games involving Scotland. So the SFA and the SPFL have resumed normal service by giving everyone an excuse to complain about everything and everybody.
Rodgers has, though, more to focus on at the ground with no name now that Tony Macaroni have ended their sponsorship deal with Livingston. Livi might be best described as a periodic pest to Celtic on the back of six drawn games between them, along with two defeats for the champions, in their Premiership history. Their manager David Martindale is, I’m told, in advanced discussions over turning his life-less-ordinary into a book.
It’s not as if he’s short on material, after all. But what kind of blockbuster might he be capable of providing today? Livi are, as I’ve told Martindale to his face, going down to the Championship and face an uncertain future because of external difficulties at the club that are outwith his control.
They could still inflict potentially fatal damage to Celtic’s title hopes if they put up a belligerent front today. And Celtic’s season has been characterised by the arrival of things they didn’t see coming, like points dropped at unusual times in unexpected places. They say opposites attract but do they distract as well? It’s a synthetic surface and not grass they’ll be playing on today. The ground will be full of Celtic supporters but there will be none at Ibrox next Sunday due to an ongoing case of mutual loathing.
And Rodgers’ team will be playing a team at the bottom, and not the top, of the league table. The only constants will be a lunch-time kick-off, live television coverage and the away fans’ inherent distrust of the match officials.
It never goes away. When Rodgers had his first ever league match in charge of Celtic, against Hearts at Tynecastle on August 7 2016, the referee awarded a highly controversial penalty to the home team. His name was John Beaton. Eight years later, the sour relationship between the referee and Celtic’s manager is still a headline-maker.
Such is life in the theme park.
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