hackwatching

Graham Spiers acknowledges bias against Celtic in the course of deriding a caller

From U2 1888

I heard Graham Spiers on the radio the other week on my way to the airport. He said something that grabbed my attention in the context of bias against Celtic.

His main thrust at the time was ridiculing a caller who was asserting the view that there is bias against Celtic from officials in Scotland, and there always has been.

Spiers asked the caller if he really believed that referees got together in secret wee groups to discuss how to make decisions that would prevent Celtic from winning, using the tired old “conspiracy” label to great effect - observing that such meetings or collusion would be necessary to facilitate such a conspiracy. He laughed a few times while making this point.

However, he also went on to make another statement in the same conversation which was not probed in any way whatsoever. He said that there was little doubt that there was bias against Celtic 40 years ago, but that was long gone.

I found myself asking the car radio - in leiu of not being able to ask the man himself - how does he arrive at that conclusion?

Does he know of collusion between officials in the past?

Is he suggesting it was institutionalised back then and therefore no need for collusion?

Is he suggesting it may have been rogue individuals?

Is he suggesting officials were like other members of society and applying discriminatory practices in line with their background?

Is he suggesting the SFA applied discriminatory practices?

Is he right in his timescales, as that takes us to the 60s and 70s?

I found astonishing that such a statement, and it wasn’t a throw-away line, could be dropped in and nobody asked him to elaborated.

All of the ridicule he was pouring on the caller’s view was negated by this one statement, as Spiers was either acknowledging that consipracies existed 40 years ago among officials or he was acknowledging that bias could and has existed without the need for conspiracy or collusion among groups of individuals.

The latter is the main point being made by Celtic supporters in relation to match officials (not just referees).

The former is used by many involved in the football media to dismiss as ridiculous the possibility that one team could be unfairly benefiting from decision making by these officials.

Ironically, conspiracy is exactly what is occuring in relation to the manner in which the Scottish sports media are handling the subject matter this season. They do collude, in agreeing the main soundbites coming from press conferences and determining the “story” for the day, to agreeing to follow subtle and unsubtle direction from Walter Smith and David Murray on the manner in which certain subjects are reported from within Ibrox.

Graham Spiers himself has commented many times on this media collusion - which by definition equates to a conspiracy - but he has, for the first time as far as I’m aware, acknowledged a bias against Celtic from match officials in the past.

I believe he has a duty to elaborate on this and clarify why he holds this view. He may find, if he is honest within himself, that the theories of the past hold true in many cases for the present.

More paranoid ranting available at www.celticparanoia.blogspot.com

 

TONY BANANAS & HACKWATCHER