the ref's notebook

industrial language

Stuart Dougal takes a very dim view of swearing if the recent Celtic v Rangers game at Ibrox is anything to go by, which came as something of a surprise to Winstim Smith, our man who guards the Memory Hole here at NTV Mansions' Minitruth Department.

Winstim even went to the bother of retrieving a wee snippet from the archives from 2002. Readers with elephantine memories out there might remember that was the year Stuart 'No swearing Please, We're referees' was given an unprecedented fine and reprimand for... swearing at a player.

Dougal was spotted live on TV during a match at Firhill ordering four coffees in the direction of Rangers' midfielder Christian Nerlinger. A spokesman for the SFA said: 'The committee decided that Mr. Dougal should be fined £200 and severely censured.'

Speaking in defence of Dougal, Rangers manager Alex McLeish insisted that Dougal should not have been disciplined for swearing at one of his players: 'It was not said in a malicious way -but a cheeky way', said big Feck... sorry, Eck, a line of defence you should try next time you tell somebody to go forth an multiply and they take offence at your cheeky riposte.

Maybe Neil Lennon should push that line at his hearing?

The reff off... sorry, the ref, himself told reporters that he was, 'very disappointed by what has happened,' and was clearly feeling hard done by. 'A fine of £200 and an official censure amounts to a double punishment in my eyes.'

Yes, it wouldn't do to cop two punishments for one offence, would it Stuart?

'The support from my fellow referees and those within the game has been almost humbling,' he added. Almost, but not quite.

Both Nerlinger and Rangers manager Alex McLeish said at the time that they did not think that Dougal should be disciplined. The German player even insisted that he had not heard any swearing, the football equivalent of explaining away your bruises to the prison warders by telling him you 'slipped on a bar of soap, sir'. Yes, the use of stentorian language is all part of the game. It appears that it's only offensive when you want it to be.

Naturally, Dougal was considering an appeal against his cruel and unjust punishment. He must have been hoping that Don McVicar wasn't going to come out in the press and tell everyone that he thought Stuart deserved all he got.

MANFRED LURKER

 

And they gave us Dougal, Clark, McCurry and...

Do the SFA really sing that wee song with the change in names? When Stuart Dougal was appointed by the SFA to ref the first Celtic v Rangers SPL game of 2005-06 it struck me as odd that, once again, one of the usual suspects was being asked to officiate this fixture. I began trawling through the archives of referee appointments and I was reminded that Dougal had refereed an Old Firm SPL game on quite a few occasions. In fact when looking at the details it turned out that he had reffed the fixture no less than 7 times since season 2000-01.

Upon closer inspection I noted that the only referees asked to officiate the Glasgow derby fixture during the last five seasons were:

Stuart Dougal - 7 times
Kenny Clark - 6 times
Hugh Dallas - 5 times
Michael McCurry - 3 times

So these games, from a refereeing perspective, have been whittled down by the SFA to just four individuals. Is this an attempt by the SFA to only appoint refs who they see as competent to preside over these fixtures? If so does it bring into question the SFA's and FIFA's assessments of the standard of referees in Scotland?

The SFA's own handbook has a section called the 'Register of Senior Referees'. In this section it details the standard of refereeing required to officiate at various levels of the game within Scotland. The handbook says that the top level of referee is considered 'efficient to referee any match'. This level is known as 'Class 1 referees (Category 1)'. The handbook then goes onto detail every referee who is considered to be at this standard of refereeing. The total number of names on the list amounts to over 30 referees. So according to the SFA's own blurb these 30 refs are considered to be capable of officiating 'any match'.

Of those 30 refs listed, the SFA have deemed in their wisdom that only four of them could officiate the Celtic - Rangers league fixtures over the last five years. This is a quite incredible fact and begs the question as to why other Category 1 referees from the list are not asked to officiate the game.

What really makes this even more bizarre is that many of the 30 referee SPL matches on a weekly basis. Among the names are the more familiar figures of: Iain Brines John Underhill Alan Freeland Steve Conroy Craig Thomson Eddie Smith.

Now I'm not going to pass judgement on any of these refs in terms of their quality of refereeing or how we feel we've been treated by them over the years but it does make it more puzzling that many refs are simply excluded from being put in charge OF SPL games.

On what grounds we should ask? Is it that they're not up to the cauldron atmosphere of such an encounter? Do they not know how to show another red card to Tommo or Ricksen? Can they not understand Lenny's or Bazza ned's sweary tirades? Is it that they lack experience of other big games?

The answer to this last question might lie in the names of the 7 referees from the SFA who are on the FIFA International List of referees.

According to the SFA handbook these referees are appointed annually on the basis of performance and experience. According to the FIFA website the current 7 referees are: Iain Brines (since 2003) Kenny Clark (1993) Stuart Dougal (1996) Douglas McDonald (2000) Calum Murray (2005) Charlie Richmond (2003) Craig Thomson (2003).

The appointment of Murray is the replacement for Dallas who thankfully has left both the international and the domestic refereeing scene. Scotland's ex top whistler can no longer bring mayhem and his unique brand of refereeing nonsense to the game any more. We can see from Dougal and Clark's time on the list that they are deemed to have the experience for derby games.

But wait a minute -there's a notable omission from the FIFA list here. Mike McCurry! One of the four whistlers of the apocalypse is not deemed to be worthy of a place on the FIFA international list but has got a regular gig of officiating Celtic - Rangers games. Very odd.

And what of McDonald, Brines, Thomson and Richmond? They have yet to register on the fixture's Richter scale even though FIFA and the SFA consider them to be of sufficient quality.

Whatever way this is looked at there are around 8 to 10 referees who could - and should - realistically officiate these fixtures. Whether these characters do a good or a bad job on the day is down to them, but not being given the chance leaves suspicion as to why the SFA insist on appointing the same four faces for these games. Additionally by having a larger rota of referees it means that the terrible performance of Dougal in the latest game will not be repeated. Each official would be judged on his handling of the match. Dougal and Clark in particular would be quite properly only reffing the fixture every 8 or 10 games or every second season. With Dallas now out the picture the SFA no doubt have the tricky decision of who is going to be the 4th whistler for the fixtures this season.

Before they do this they should give serious consideration to ensuring that all Category 1 referees and particularly those on the FIFA International list are given their crack at the whip. Whether they do a good job on the day will be the usual topic of punters and media alike. There can be no denying though that the SFA have deemed that more than four referees are qualified to ref the fixture and 7 of them are on the FIFA International list.

I won't hold my breath in thinking that they'll still go for Clark and McCurry for the two of the remaining fixtures.

Altogether now - 'To ref football the Scottish FA way...'

HULLBHOY

courtesy of www.etims.net