Kris Boyd hits out at Rangers amid ‘ridiculous’ Willie Collum saga
Kris Boyd has slammed Rangers for their continued pressure against VAR official Willie Collum after he made the decision not to award the club a penalty in the 2-1 defeat to Celtic at Parkhead.
Boyd claimed that, while the decision was a poor one and that was clear in the eyes of most people watching, the abuse and witch-hunt for Collum is ridiculous and needs to stop.
He warned about the potential impact of their claims on Collum’s family and personal life after Rangers called for the official to be banned from officiating their future games.
Writing in his column for the Daily Record [4 January], Boyd emplored: “It’s one thing to question individual decisions. It’s something different altogether to suggest deliberate wrongdoing.
“That’s what Gers have effectively done by requesting Collum plays no part in their games in future, and that’s not right.
“For a start, this is a guy who has got to the top of refereeing, someone who has more European experience than Rangers or Celtic in recent years.
“More importantly, though, he is a husband and a father. The scrutiny he’s been put under in the last week has been nothing short of ridiculous.
“Because everyone has a responsibility, now more than ever, to consider what they are saying about people and how that’s affecting them. Maybe Collum couldn’t care less about this whole controversy, I don’t know.
“But he’s got a family and it can’t be nice for them to be in the eye of the storm, all because of something that happened inside the penalty box in a game of football.”
Boyd has a point
While the continued scrutiny of the officiating, particularly aimed at the Scottish FA after the statement they put out in response to Rangers, is fair and likely just – the abuse for Collum isn’t.
That cannot be considered the fault of the club. They are ultimately appealing a division that went against them in such a big game in the context of their season, and asking questions about how that decision was made, but the claims about Collum are a bit much.
As Boyd says, everybody makes mistakes and that is simply what it was. It was a poor decision, and one Rangers were never likely to be happy about, but it was just a man getting something wrong at his job.
To suggest he should be banned from officiating future games for the Ibrox club is just as much as a reach as suggesting any poor decision was made with malice or intention, and any abuse sent the way of the official should be strongly condemned by the club.
In other Rangers news, two more attackers are in talks to join Rangers.