Celtic and Rangers both react to Kevin Clancy abuse with strong comments

Both Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou and his Rangers counterpart Michael Beale have commented on the abuse referee Kevin Clancy has received in the wake of last weekend’s Old Firm clash.

Clancy received threatening phone and email messages which police are looking into after Celtic’s 3-2 victory, which moved them 12 points clear at the summit of the cinch Premiership. There were a number of contentious decisions in the match, including the call to disallow a goal for Rangers by Alfredo Morelos when the score was 0-0. Both Postecoglou and Beale addressed the situation in their broadcast press conferences ahead of this weekend’s league matches.

What Ange Postecoglou said

“It’s concerning for any person, mate. We shouldn’t even be talking about it. We all understand we work in a public space and with that comes scrutiny, but that should begin and end within the professions we work in, not go into our personal lives. And particularly with officials because, for the most part, we have clubs or supporter bases we would like to think would go into bat for us in situations like this. But the officials are kind of left out on their own. I think it’s a really timely reminder to all of us about the language we use and the reasonings we use behind things. I mean last week, if you look at it, was a real derby game and it had a bit of everything, but it wasn’t a great game. It was a game that was riddled by mistakes from both sides. Both sides. Players and, dare I say it, managers made a lot more mistakes than the officials did on the day. So why we need to separate that, from my perspective, if anyone analysed that game and think one moment decided that, then they are not really looking at the big picture.

Referee Kevin Clancy was sent abuse and threats after Celtic's 3-2 win over Rangers last weekend.

"From my perspective there is a decision there where everyone has opinions on it but it’s not fact-based because it’s not like it’s an offside or something you can clearly see. It’s an opinion-based thing. Everyone gives their opinion and ultimately one person has to make the decision. It’s all right for us to give our opinion and be really brave but when you have got to be there and make a decision, that’s when we have to have respect for the officials and allow them to do their job. Within the context of that, whatever opinions we have, I thought we should have had a penalty at Ibrox. But it doesn’t really matter, you give your opinion and you move on, and you analyse the game. As I said, that was a mistake-riddled derby by both teams and to isolate the officials as to the reasoning why the contest went one way or another, I think gives a false impression and adds to the unnecessary pressure on the people making decisions.”

What Michael Beale said

I haven’t (spoken to Crawford Allan, head of referee operations at the Scottish Football Association). I have in the past but not this week and I wasn’t involved in the asking of questions. To me the game was done. I disagree with one decision, I got it wrong on another because on the angle I saw I thought it hit the boy’s arm. It hadn’t so fair play, but I still think the first decision was the wrong one. It is up for debate but the game has gone. We are not going to be able to change the result of the game. I don’t know the facts, but if Kevin has been getting abuse, it is not something that we accept in football and it is something as a club that we condemn and we are not happy with.

“Whoever the referee is in whatever game around the world, it is a difficult job as it is. On the day the referee makes the decisions that he sees. I happen to think in that moment it was a wrong decision, but across the whole game you can’t count too many decisions that were up for debate. Just that one moment and it had an impact. In every big derby, and certainly this one, it drags on for days and days and we have to be careful with that. It was a good game. Unfortunately we came off second best. I am disappointed with that more than anything else.”