Alan Pattullo: Returning to 'normal' is a bleak prospect

Published on Sunday 28 November 2010 13:49

There may have been a whiteout over Scotland this weekend. However, Stewart Regan has tried to ensure that there are no allegations of a whitewash at Hampden Park following Friday's sacking of Hugh Dallas, along with four other Scottish Football Association colleagues.

But what is likely to change after an incendiary weekend, one which saw, on the day following Dallas' exit, foreign referees being applauded off the pitch while local ones were polishing their whistles at home? And then last night, Dougie McDonald gave what many, even those who supported him, had called for: his resignation, via an explosively-worded statement.

No-one is feeling particularly good about themselves, not even those stand-ins who performed more than adequately in the four SPL fixtures to survive the weather. One of them, Israeli referee Eli Hacmon, insisted that he would not have made the trip to take charge of the Kilmarnock versus Aberdeen fixture had he known the full reasons for the strike. Had they been recruited on false pretences? Possibly.

However, the Scottish referees did not have a problem with their colleagues from abroad stepping in. Indeed, the fact the games went ahead in such extraordinary circumstances did more for their cause, since it kept people talking. It also exhibited that it is possible for referees to be allowed to carry out their work in an environment where they are treated with respect.

Players and managers alike showed they had been shaken by the row and were tuggling forelocks in front of the likes of Mr Hacmon and Mr Hamer, though whether such deference will survive the re-introduction to the roster of less exotic names like Colum and Thomson remains to be seen. Chances are we will be back in the old routine as soon as Aberdeen versus - yes - Celtic kicks off this weekend's fare, at midday on Saturday.

Most people would say they now want Scottish football to return to normal, but is this really what is desired? Normality for football in this country has been contaminated by the stale breath of sectarianism for as long as anyone can remember. The difference now is that it is a bit more out in the open. Perhaps - and it's a big perhaps - this weekend just passed can stand as a watershed, although the victimisation of Dallas, McDonald and four other less well-known SFA workers does leave a sour taste.

There was serious surprise among football writers last week when, on Radio Five Live's Breakfast Show programme, Nicky Campbell put it to Regan that the strike "comes back to sectarianism, doesn't it?" It was a googly of the sort which Regan was once more comfortable watching being bowled in his last post as chief executive of the Yorkshire County Cricket club.But he played it well in that he didn't attempt to fudge the issue.

Regan noted there were indeed "sectarian issues at play" in the dispute, with the Englishman admitting his dismay at the level to which the question of religious background influences the game, and society, in Scotland. It wasn't something you could imagine Gordon Smith, or any other former SFA chief executive, saying on the record. The Scottish game has been turned into a tug of war between two ultra-powerful clubs in Glasgow, and what they are seen to represent. The SFA is caught in the middle - an impotent, committee-strangled institution which struggles to stand above the endless obsession with who is Celtic or Rangers-minded.

The currently in-vogue complaint is that Celtic have come off worst in decisions compared to their Ibrox rivals. Yet what of those sides who routinely feel they come off worse in games against both teams? Most simply do not have the influence to harass the SFA. They have to fall in place behind the big two.

Credit must go to Stirling Albion for seeking "clarification" - their presumably wryly-chosen word - on the process of how match officials were allocated last weekend. Their outrage has been sparked by learning that they were not even included in the draw for referees last week, even though they had brought forward a match with Partick Thistle to solve their own blank schedule problem. Programmes had already been printed.

Stirling estimate the total loss of income to be as much as 10,000 - a lot to a club owned by the fans. It is thus understandable how non-Old Firm clubs can develop a chip on the shoulder, particularly in the lower leagues. An argument which had nothing to do with them, which has raged on for five weeks, has ended up impacting heavily on their already shaky financial position. Nine Scottish Football League clubs ended up having to postpone fixtures which were desperately required to raise income prior to Christmas, when further matches will risk falling to the weather.

Indeed, some would have been beaten by the conditions on Saturday in any case. But it isn't the point. The perception is that the Old Firm are in charge.

A few sackings, a resignation and a strike by referees won't alter that. As Regan said, it is a cultural thing. The football might well return to normal this weekend. But that means referees being imperilled by the same impossible task of convincing critics that their mistakes are honest ones.