Celtic fans have long been known as being paranoid. Whenever a decision goes against them, no matter how minimal, cries of "agenda!" and "bias!" are never far from the ears. Now, I use the word "they" rather than "us" because, as far as I'm aware, I'm one of the least paranoid Celtic fans to ever walk the earth. I tend to lean towards the idea that officials are merely incompetent, rather than harbouring a more vicious and all-consuming grudge against my club.
To keep things basic, the main two issues Celtic fans bring up in an attempt to prove some sort of institutional bias against our club is firstly, back in the 60's, when the SFA tried to pass a rule against us flying an Irish tricolour at our stadium. This failed, however it was also seen as an attempt to rob Celtic of their heritage and an example of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiments which were, let's face it, common in Britain at the time. Secondly, in the 90's, there was what will forever be known as the "Jim Farry affair." Farry, then Chief Executive of the SFA, was forced to resign his post after an independent tribunal showed that he deliberately delayed the registration of Celtic's Jorge Cadete, forcing him to miss the semi final of the Scottish Cup against Rangers, which Celtic went on to lose 2-1. Now, in the interests of fairness it must be shown that Farry didn't get on with Fergus McCann, Celtic's chairman at the time, and whilst he did deliberately not register Cadete in time for this game, it could merely have been due to a personal grudge rather than an underlying hatred of the club itself. However, Celtic fans don't see it that way, and have used this as evidence for their case that the paranoia they feel is justified.
Now, we reach the present day - and by that I mean I will be using examples from the last couple of seasons. Last night's inept display by referee Willie Collum is merely the latest in a long line of terrible refereeing displays in games involving Celtic. Collum himself has previous - in the first Old Firm game of this season, he awarded Rangers a penalty as a result of a dive by Kirk Broadfoot (interesting side note - this player was out injured for a spell last season after exploding an egg on his face), despite the fact Collum in fact had his back to the incident and could not possibly have had a clear view. Add this to the contentious decisions from Old Firm games last season - two penalties denied in the first game by Craig Thomson, who later apologised, a disallowed goal by Marc Antoine Fortune in the second game, and Scott Brown sent off for no apparent reason by Dougie McDonald in the third (don't you worry dear reader, we'll get to him later). It was this last decision which finally prompted Celtic Football Club to make a stand, stating that no "fair minded" individual would possibly have given that as a red card. Strong words indeed.
Dougie-gate, the Hugh Dallas affair and the refereeing strike have also occurred this season, merely adding fuel to the fire of the paranoid. Dougie McDonald, albeit eventually, resigned his post after admitting lying to Neil Lennon about an overturned penalty decision - he claimed to have been told by his linesman that the decision was the wrong one, which was later proven to be a lie after said linesman sold his story to a not-very-respected daily newspaper. The decision itself was the correct one, although there was a stonewall penalty directly before the incident which has since been so ignored you'd think it was a relative of Josef Fritzl, however the integrity of the officials was called into question. "My integrity has not been damaged!" claimed oor Doug. "But you lied!" replied everyone else with a better grasp of the English language, and Dougie was gone. The referees then went on strike, claiming they didn't like their integrity being called into question and their decisions being analysed. Clearly a better understanding of the nature of the Scottish game is required by these officials. Finally, what really set the cat amongst the pigeons was the Hugh Dallas affair, so brilliantly broken by the excellent journalist Phil MacGiollaBhain, in which it was discovered that Hugh Dallas, along with others, had been sending anti-Catholic emails around the SFA office. Dallas was promptly removed from his post, prompting scenes of great celebration in Bar 67 doon the Gallowgate.
And now, we have a war of words. Celtic, refusing to accept Neil Lennon's frankly ridiculous 6 match touchline ban, have stated they are involving their lawyers. The statement stopped short of calling the SFA biased, however there was clear intent. The SFA responded in kind, branding Celtic "tiresome." Celtic have since responded again, finding it "curious" that the SFA have chosen to respond in that manner. A war of words indeed.
You may draw your own conclusions, and this actually ended up much longer than it intended to. As one of those rarities, a non-paranoid Celtic fan, even I must admit that I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that Celtic are equally as hard done to as ot
