It's always worrying when the integrity of The Beautiful Game is questioned, and such is the case now with the resultant strike by referees in Scotland.
Referees at the top level in Scotland are to strike this weekend after their integrity was questioned following the admission of lying by referee Dougie McDonald following a recent Celtic v Dundee United game.
It seems that Mr McDonald gave a penalty to Celtic, consulted his assistant and then changed his decision to 'no penlaty'. He said that he had changed his decision after being alerted to his mistake by the assistant, but then later said that in fact he had changed his mind upon realising his own error.
The lie seems very small to me, yet Celtic chairman John Reid said: "If the SFA had any sense of their own integrity, they should look at it again. His position is completely untenable. The SFA's position on this issue is also untenable."
I don't see that. It appears to me that the referee made a mistaken decision, changed his mind and sought to justify it by saying his assistant had helped him, but then admitted that it was HIS decision to overturn the penalty award. That IS integrity.
Celtic won the bad-tempered game on 17 October 2-1 with an injury-time winner.
Referees have a difficult enough job with all the cheating that goes on by players (in all leagues), and to question their integrity is, at best, unhelpful.
I sympathise with the strike.
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