Message sent to SFA after Rangers and Willie Collum saga erupts at Ibrox
Stephen McGowan has called for the Scottish FA not to bow to Rangers’ demands for Willie Collum to be prevented from officiating their games, insisting he should referee their Scottish Cup clash with Dumbarton.
McGowan claimed that if the Ibrox club, or anybody else in the league, are allowed to dictate who referees their games, it will bring the whole game into question.
He also slammed the impact on the credibility of the SFA should anybody other than Collum take charge of their game, as it will prove that the clubs will have too much control over the governing body.
Writing in his column in the print edition of the Scottish Daily Mail [6 January, pg 110], McGowan wrote: “After the winter break, Rangers travel to Dumbarton in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.
“The search for a match referee shouldn’t take long. If he still wants it after a bruising week, Willie Collum should be the only name in the frame. If the SFA allow Rangers or any other club to pick and choose who referees them, the game is up.
“Should anyone other than Collum take charge of the Dumbarton tie or the league game at Hibs a few days later, people can stop describing the office bearers on Hampden’s sixth floor as a ‘governing body’. The tail will be wagging the dog.”
An overblown situation
After McGowan’s latest claims, the whole situation regarding the refereeing saga at Celtic Park has been blown massively out of proportion and has been taken significantly further than it ever needed to go.
Rangers were well within their rights to question the decision made in the Old Firm clash, it was objectively a strange call to make and the attempt at clarification only confused things further, but they received their explanation and should then have moved on.
The continued demands made, and pressure applied to both the SFA and Collum are overblown. Ultimately, it’s a refereeing error. And yet it has led to several claims of corruption and bias all-round, for something that happens most weeks at most grounds.
For what was a poor penalty decision to have turned into a battle between Rangers, who claim the SFA are corrupt for the decision, and the likes of McGowan, who claim bias in Rangers’ favour, is frankly overblown and unnecessary.
In other Rangers news, Kris Boyd also hit out at Rangers amid the ongoing saga.