Gers v Arabs

[Hume]

[Ninja Mania]

That would be hoora funny if it wasnt so close to the truth.

[The modfather]

That would be hoora funny if it wasnt so close to the truth.

Edit

I was gonna reply but im not even gonna give you the satisfaction of another post for you to argue with

[Ninja Mania]

Dont be so touchy, I dont argue, I debate, I give my opinion, you give yours, I can give as much sh..it as I can take, and laugh it off, can you. No team has ever put anything into my wallet, so I follow them from a distance, I dont let them upset me when they loose games, leagues, cups or whatever anymore. Life is for living, life is for family, life is hopefully healthy, all the rest is is just for fun.

[Darren]

1-The cup final i could take as no ref can get every decision right, but McCurry on saturday might have well had a rangers top on- that wasn't shocking, just CHEATING!!!
2-Levein was so right to say what he did, i hope the SFA try and fine him like they did when he was at hearts, and hope he goes all the way to court this time..
3-Didnt see rangers trying to help united when we got to the final and had to play a scottish cup final in between both games, might be 21 years ago but what goes around etc...
4-that game on saturday could have cost utd a lot of money if a uefa cup place and then a group place, like aberdeen did this year had been achieved, but why would the old firm care..
5-and good luck to rangers on wednesday night, i still hope they win because it would be a great acheivment for a scottish(?) club.

[Glory Blazer]

I think this has been blown out of all proportion.

I totally agree that Dundee Utd should have had a penalty and the 'offside' goal should have stood. I can understand why they feel aggrieved. However take a look back at a few other recent refereeing decisions recently.

1) Aberdeen also pushing for a UEFA cup place, scored a perfectly good goal against Celtic that was disallowed. No great big furore surrounding that.
2) Celtic scored an offside goal against Rangers which stood and also the penalty that occured outside the box in the same game.
3) Aberdeen once again scored a perfectly good goal against motherwell at the weekend that also was not given.
4) Wigan were denied a stonewall penalty against Man Utd.

All this shows is that referees make mistakes, they are only human. Getting camera's/foreign referees involved in the game of football would take away so much. There would be no controversy, no major talking points and less excitment. (In my opinion).

Referee's come out and hold their hands up after they have made a mistake, would the clubs take legal action against their players for missing a vital chance that could have secured European football and revenue for the club? I don't see the difference, human error in this country seems to be construed as cheating in the eyes of the opposing team/rivals and that's wrong.

Every team in the league has had dodgey decisions given against them, but they have to get on with it. It all evens itself out over the season. Rangers had two stonewall penalty's turned down last midweek against Motherwell but no leagal action was sought. It could cost Rangers the Championship should it go down to goal difference.

Everybody feels hard done to at some point due to refereeing decisions, but you just have to get on with it.

[Hume]

Glory Blazer, I think so much is being made of the events on Saturday because it was once again Mike McCurry who was at the centre of the controversy.

I've made my feelings clear on Mike MocKery before and I have to say I think he is corrupt. I realise that leaves me open to looking like a paranoid fool who supports a diddy team but there are plenty more like me. Whether it is intentional or not I'm not entirely sure, but some of the decisions he makes in charge of Rangers games are disgraceful. Perhaps it is only sub-concious and he can't help it?

I was absolutely delighted that Craig Levein spoke out the way he did. If it helps to highlights the problems we have with referees in Scotland it was worth it.

I go to my fair share of SPL games and generally the standard of refereeing is terrible. I'm not saying they are all cheats but too many don't have the bottle to give decisions against Rangers and Celtic. It is hard enough for other teams to compete against Rangers and Celtic without having to deal with poor referreing decisions.

I know you will point to instances where your team has not received a decision, so can everyone, but please do not use the "it will even itself our" argument. That is the poorest defence of poor refereeing possible. You pointed out that Aberdeen have been denied two ligitimate goals in the last month, the latter being huge as it would have put us 2-1 up on Motherwell and in with a shout of leveling on 53 points with them in 3rd place. Now, I might be wrong but I don't recall anyone scoring against us this season and having it ruled out.

That said, I was at the game on Saturday and it must have been difficult for the ref and linesman to give that goal. Had the linesman been on the goalline he would probably have seen it but Craig Thomson couldn't have seen it as he was facing the goal, about the same distance in front as I was behind. I couldn't have said for sure if it was over the line.

I have to say the ref is not really at fault there, unlike McCurry on Saturday.

This tit for tat thats been going on between Celtic and Rangers over deicsions in the last two weeks is pathetic too. Of course both get more than their fair share of dodgy decisions. Its frustrating though isn't it? Try supporting one of the other teams in the league though.

What we need to look at is which ref is continually giving these decisions and to which team, rather than saying Rangers got a dodgy call this week and Celtic got one last week so its all fine. The amount of times I head or read so called expert say it evens out is unbelievable. Does this mean so long as the Old Firm get an equal share there is nothing to worry about?

McCurry should not be allowed to referee another game in Scoland, but the SPL (or is it the SFA who make refereeing appointements?) in an act of defiance will make sure he does. He'll probably even have a request to referee Rangers in his last ever appointment honoured just like people before him.

[Hume]

Referee's come out and hold their hands up after they have made a mistake, would the clubs take legal action against their players for missing a vital chance that could have secured European football and revenue for the club? I don't see the difference

Come on, that's a wind up?

[Glory Blazer]

Referee's come out and hold their hands up after they have made a mistake, would the clubs take legal action against their players for missing a vital chance that could have secured European football and revenue for the club? I don't see the difference

Come on, that's a wind up?

I was merely pointing out that if you are going to take legal action for a referee making a mistake, then why not take legal action for a player making a mistake. Either way Dundee Utd don't have a leg to stand on.

I agree with what you are saying Hume, but do Aberdeen not have the right to take legal action (like D.UTD) for legitimate goals not being awarded and therefore a possible loss in revenue? I see the people at Aberdeen have more sense.

Craig Levein was right to speak out, he must feel gutted, but by the same token so should Aberdeen. I think the referee had a howler but often players have howlers too. They are not robot's and no-body can be right all the time.

I don't buy into McCurry being corrupt, the Danny Swanson goal was disallowed due to the linesman, not McCurry and the linesman should have picked up Weir's foul on Hunt. To lay all the blame soley at McCurry's door is slightly unfair, even though he admitted he got them wrong. However they do not have the benefit of countless tv angles and slow motion replays. They have to make their decision in a split second and at this stage of the season, with so much at stake, any error is going to be magnified 100 times.

This does nothing to encourage youngsters into refereeing.

[Hume]

OK GB, leaving the corruption argument to one side, do you think McCurry should be allowed to continue to refereeing at the highest level in Scotland following his admission of incompetance?

[Glory Blazer]

I think referees should have refresher training sessions annually. I also think that their performance should be monitored and a review at the end of each season to see how well they have performed.

I am sure OPTA stats could be employed to calculate correct/incorrect decisions and there could possibly be bonus related pay relating to how well they have performed over the season and an award for the best referee. Maybe the SFA putting the best referee's forward to represent them at the World Cup/European Championships. Just a wee thought.

In the same token do you think the referee who gave the decisions against Aberdeen should be allowed to referee again in the SPL. If we start this carry on where will it stop when a linesman/referee makes a gross error?

[Hume]

Some resonable suggestions there GB, especially monitoring referees over a season. Perhaps it is a bit drastic to demote a ref based on an isolated mistake.

If however, there was a pattern of repeated failure to apply the laws of the game then a ref should not be allowded to take charge any longer.

Specifically, on the two Aberdeen incidents you refer to I reckon Iain Brines should receive some sort of warning (a yellow card maybe ) after blowing for a foul at Parkhead when there was no such infringement.

I would excuse Craig Thomson of any blame on Saturday, he was well positioned for a cross coming in to the box and I would challenge anyone to judge and call with certainty whether a ball is 18 yards away or 18 yards and 8 inches away - that is essentially what he needed to do to give the goal. I saw him look to his linesman, who didn't give any indication either so he had no option but to play on.

The linesman was a good four yards from the goal line, which is the real problem - he was looking into the goal too rather than along the line. Again, maybe he should receive a warning.

This is the only way we can improve the standard. If refs can continually get away with making bad decisions, which have huge repurcusions things will not get any better.

But, we need to differentiate between wrong decisions and the inability to make the right decision.

[Stone Cold aka Doags Bs]

Is there anything wrong with this picture?

Decisions been made, quite frankly there will always been scrutiny for refs. Deal with it.

[A Horse called Juan Face]

4) Wigan were denied a stonewall penalty against Man Utd.
.

There was another penalty incident on Scholes in the second half that could easily have been given too. Ive only seen the Dundee Utd foul, nothing else, but I dont really see how a referee couldve got it wrong, until I saw it was the 'good' bishop.

[Stone Cold aka Doags Bs]

Are we going to talk poor decisions here? How about the last Rangers Celtic game? Shall we talk poor decisions? Offside first goal? Venegoor of Hesselink stamping on Faye? Hartley crunching Ferguson, as he did to McCulloch the game before?

Can we not just leave it be? It's done and dusted now.