Philippe Clement blasted over request to journalists in Rangers press conference
Philippe Clement has been slammed for baying to conspiracy theorists after Rangers were denied a penalty against Celtic.
Liam Scales clearly fouled Vaclav Cerny in the penalty area during extra-time of the Gers’ Premier Sports Cup defeat to Celtic last week but VAR failed to overturn John Beaton’s decision to award a free-kick on the edge of the box.
After the penalty shoot-out loss at Hampden Park, Clement told journalists to do some digging as to why the penalty wasn’t awarded, something which Keevins believes could be incendiary given the tendency for Old Firm fans to believe there’s a conspiracy against their club.
“Tension isn’t just running high. It started out being at a high level and now it’s threatening to spin out of control. And matters were not helped by the request to journalists from Rangers’ manager Philippe Clement in his post-match press conference,” said the newspaper columnist on the Daily Record website (22 December).
“He urged the press to ‘dig deep’ into the reasons for the non-award of the penalty for Liam Scales’ tug on Cerny. Dig deep into what precisely?
“Celtic and Rangers fans believe their clubs to be at the mercy of institutional bias. They delve into games like the one played against each other last Sunday in forensic detail of a kind that Police Scotland would envy.
“Fans genuinely think that flashpoints like the penalty decision are the consequence of match officials allowing allegiance to one club or the other resulting in them deliberately breaking the rules. The term ‘human error’ is an alien concept and transparency on the part of the governing body is synonymous with treachery in the minds of their accusers.”
Rangers v Celtic conspiracy theory nonsense
It’s not just an Old Firm thing but social media these days is awash with fans thinking that certain referees have it out for their club.
But there’s no doubt that Rangers and Celtic fans have a very special relationship with conspiracy theories that emerge to try and explain the unexplainable.
That decision to not award the Gers a penalty last week was a joke.
It was rubbish officiating and a rubbish use of VAR.
Rangers aren’t the first team to fall foul of a terrible VAR decision – we’ve already seen one since then on Friday with Motherwell’s Dan Casey getting sent off for a minor push on Kilmarnock’s Danny Armstrong.
So is there a conspiracy against Motherwell, too? Does referee Chris Graham hate the Steelmen?
It just doesn’t stop.
Every team is the victim of bad refereeing at some point. Unfortunately for Rangers, it might have cost them a piece of silverware and a win over their bitter rivals.
In other Rangers news, Neil Lennon was raging over what he found “shocking” in the Old Firm.
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