22 Mar 2026 14:59:29
22 Mar 2026 15:33:48
Laudrup, You'll have a Celtic fan podcast about helping us, the referees and more, so VAR is useless in Scotland.
22 Mar 2026 15:34:23
Gollum should be sacked. He actually makes it more difficult for referees, bending over backwards, trying to justify errors.
There have been numerous occasions during the last couple of seasons where referees have had to pivot mid season on how they handle incidents because of what he says in these reviews.
He also did it again in this most recent one where he says Scales should have got a pen for pulling in the box.
It was the type of incident that happens constantly in games and is usually deemed not enough for a penalty. But, saying it should be a pen, the refs are now less clear than before.
Overall, he has been a terrible referee and an appalling head of referees imo.
22 Mar 2026 16:26:14
So, the first clip, Collum says the tackle is studs up and makes contact high up 'on the ankle'. You can see that is the case.
The second clip, the VAR says foot on foot. You can see the boot lands on his foot.
Not sure what the point is. They are two totally different tackles hitting 2 totally different areas of the tackled player. A tackle hitting the ankle is often considered more serious than one hitting the foot because it strikes the primary mechanical link between the leg and the ground.
While a foot hit might break a single small bone, an ankle hit can destabilise the entire lower leg.
The clip of Collum speaking about these incidents was because of these types of conspiracies. He wanted transparency to show when decisions refs make are right and wrong. He shouldn't have bothered as they will always exist.
The Celtic referee conspiracy is working really well though with them being third. ?
22 Mar 2026 17:03:53
Not sure what you're watching there, Angus, but it's foot on foot after the studs drag down the shin, it's clear as day for me you can actually see the stud pull the sock down. ?
22 Mar 2026 17:38:12
Angus, if both OF teams were referred to the same standard the gap between us would be a lot wider, that's for sure.
I don't buy into the theory referees are just poor, and it all evens itself out for the season.
I attended my first game in 1967, and, believe me, us and Celtic have not had the same standards applied for a long time now.
22 Mar 2026 18:05:46
That gal wouldn't be more if they were ref to the same standard, because they are already to the same standard poor. Some of our fans need to take off the tin foil hat and stop acting like that lot.
22 Mar 2026 18:10:52
Once a Ranger, then like me, you are old enough to know better. So from 1986 till 2000 did the refs take a break with the conspiracy? Is it only when we are losing or just odd years, those which are the Chinese year of the horse? It has to be the most inconsistent conspiracy in the world.
?
Actually, forget it. If you want to believe this rubbish, carry on and I will leave you to it.
22 Mar 2026 18:48:08
BTW, I did not mean to type Gollum. I do find it funny that my phone corrects to that. Lol.
But it changed the tone of trying to make a serious point about the shows making refereeing standards worse. It may be Collum, but I am not sure it's helpful at all to have these.
I was in favour of transparency originally, but having seen it implemented I would scrap it and let them handle it privately. Airing their dirty laundry in public is doing referees no favours and is leading to greater inconsistency in decision making imo.
22 Mar 2026 18:54:47
What strikes me when watching the VAR show is the refs in VAR are too excitable and are calling an incident before they even see a replay, then making it hard for them to go back on what they said as they don't want to look wrong. Just look at the Mikey Moore one, no dogso lol, that's just laughable. Also this talk about player too far from goal is idiotic, it's making an assumption on players ability. Can't remember the game, but boy was the keeper way off line, could have pinged it. They say dogso, which is fair, but Mikey Moore pulling trigger on shot and no dogso. Also ref right away screams he got the ball first when he clearly didn't.
These guys should not be excitable and need to have calm heads for that job.
And, as another person said, Collum doing backflips to justify every decision just makes it worse. Everyone can see through their lies.
It's the same with radio commentary. Was listening to game other day and it was all Rangers not very good and poor Aberdeen team, even at half time goal up and after final score 4-1 going on 6, yet in Celtic game listened today it was all positive Celtic talk even though 0-0 ht.
It's so blatant, they just don't want Rangers doing well at all
22 Mar 2026 18:55:49
Tommy, I 100% agree with that. It seemed a good idea and personally I like to hear why a decision was reached or why it was wrong.
I also believe they do need that meeting so that they can thrash out what is and isn't hand ball, for instance, although it won't work, as there is so much subjectivity as to what is seen.
Also, if ref says he has seen it and describes it close to what happened, then VAR don't intervene. Perhaps it is that part about VAR that fans need - when and why they take action or not.
22 Mar 2026 19:12:27
I call Radio Scotland radio Celtic, forever. The really bad thing is they have improved quite a bit in the last couple of years. I am old school, I enjoy a game on the radio; but listening to that channel has been unbearable at times.
I think we are going to be good in the next few seasons, whereas I think Celtic are in a really dodgy spot that could see them implode like we have for a few seasons. If that happens, I will enjoy every squirm on that channel.
22 Mar 2026 19:29:02
From listening to it, hearing the good and bad, because there is some good stuff as well as bad, my biggest takeaway is process. When you hear them follow a process, they make better decisions. They just don't do that enough, and that's why I think Willie has been really bad.
Like forever mentions, they jump to the conclusion far too quickly in too many instances. They should be working to mental checklists, or actual, of the process of deciding what the outcome should be.
That would be my advice for more consistent outcomes. It would also help fans to see that there is some substance to it, rather than sounding like a fan shouting for a decision.
They need to sound like a referee going through a decision making process, as although I would scrap it, this is not going anywhere. Cat is out of the bag, imo.
22 Mar 2026 19:33:19
Tommy, I think the good place in future was what I most hoped would happen with the turnover. We would build a team and squad who would be able to compete for every trophy and win more than our fair share. I am not as confident Celtic will just implode, though, as last time we go close they pulled out the stops and spent money.
They won't want to give up that pot of gold easily. I, like you, can always hope though. ?
I have never liked radio as it is just too nerve-wracking for me. Somehow, watching doesn't make me as nervous. Also, listen to radio inc ar, and that mix isn't good on the roads.
22 Mar 2026 19:45:10
I am not confident they will implode either, but they need to get some massive decisions correct and we have seen this season alone that those can be difficult. It can go either way, but I feel we are in a decent place for the first time in a while.
My earliest football memory is listening to Rangers European games in the dark, in my bedroom. I have loved a game on the radio ever since.
22 Mar 2026 20:21:28
Angus, on the subject of parity of refereeing standards, I know fine well you knew I was just talking about recent years, but you had to go back to the years 1986 to 2000, a successful period for us to counter my point. Not very impressive.
I will leave you in your innocent and naive world where none of this "rubbish" as you call it exists.
The final point I would make is that many ordinary balanced Rangers fans do believe there has been an imbalance in recent years, and you, my friend Angus, are in the minority with your views.
22 Mar 2026 20:27:18
Storm,
I have noticed over some time your constant standard reply to poster's complaining against referee decisions against in comparison to the East End Mob is that overall referee's are simply poor.
I take it you take no notice of stats on the disaportinate difference between the two teams in goals disallowed by VAR, number of bookings per fouls etc?
Then you also always add a reference to being too much being like the other lot with paranoia towards ref.
Does your knowledge of how the other lot think come from the close family ties to them which I have seen you mention a lot.??
In which case, does that prevent you from doing any fair analysis?
22 Mar 2026 22:28:04
Once a ranger. Since you mentioned 1967, I assumed we were looking at that entire timeframe. Now that we've ruled out 1986 to 2000, we're narrowing it down, though I suspect the issues started once the results shifted. I also think we'll see even more pushback from Celtic fans if Rangers start winning consistently again.
On the technical side, how is the severity of a foul actually judged to determine a booking? Also, is there a clear record of VAR-disallowed goals that shows whether those calls were correct?
I'm likely not alone among Rangers fans in feeling this way. While we can agree to disagree on the "conspiracy" aspect, I do think it would help if more fans studied the actual laws of the game.
Even though Storm and I usually disagree, we're on the same page here.
Oh, and my professional background is in fair, objective analysis, and I don't have any personal biases or family ties that get in the way of that.
But, as I say, I will draw my interaction to a close as this debate probably won't reach a conclusion because these conspiracy theories tend to stick around. They usually resurface whenever we lose a match and only seem to fade when we start winning again.
22 Mar 2026 22:54:08
I'm with Angus on this one - too many fans from both sides want to jump on the conspiracy theory bandwagon when we lose. Sure they get the rub of the green sometimes and refs make mistakes, however, I've seen wrong decisions at important times given against them also, so let's drop these theories and get on with winning the title.
22 Mar 2026 23:36:44
Angus, I too will draw a conclusion on this matter as it is perception based. Good for you that you did analysis at work, but so did I, but I don't talk about it.
I will go back to mainly enjoying your generally positive and optimistic posts about the team and Rangers FC in general.
I agree with Star, we have both the strongest starting eleven and the strongest bench, now
we just have to take the fullest advantage with this, allied with 100% fight and bottle in the last seven cup finals.