Glenn Gibbons: Cards still stacked against SFA over fast-track system

It was also a reminder to their administrative brethren in Scotland that it’s a rare piece of legislation that is totally free of potential pitfalls and repercussions.

While a certain degree of self-congratulation has permeated Scottish FA headquarters over the introduction of the fast-track disciplinary system designed to achieve a more transparent form of justice, there seems to have been a tendency not to consider the wider implications of the new measures, leaving a sense of incompleteness about the entire process.

For example, there exists in England the very strong possibility of Atkinson’s (at least temporary) demotion to a lower division as a consequence of his incompetence over the Rodwell incident in the Everton-Liverpool match. This demonstrates a willingness not only to prosecute, but to convict and sentence an errant referee. In Scotland, it would require an act of parliament to force the national association to admit that one of their officials had made a bloomer.

The English authorities’ readiness to take punitive action against shoddy refereeing is clearly admirable, but even that, too, carries a penalty: every time the need arises for such an admission of guilt and the imposition of punishment, their demand for “respect” for referees is seriously undermined.

In both countries, this stance by the associations takes a buffeting on a weekly basis, with many instances of injudicious refereeing being so eccentric as to be utterly baffling. At the end of any given match day, observers of the game must wonder how badly a particular referee will cringe over his performance when he watches TV re-runs. In these circumstances, respect is as willingly dispensed as free cash.

The Rodwell incident in the Merseyside derby – he was dismissed with a straight red for a perfectly legitimate and non-threatening challenge on Luis Suarez by a referee who was standing just a few yards away – was a prime source because it reinforced some arguments in the course of wiping out others.

It surely buried the idiotic claim – frequently made by referees and their apologists – that players and managers have no right to be excessively critical of match officials because they make more mistakes than the objects of their wrath. This is a view that never did make sense, on the grounds that it did not compare like with like.

When a player or a manager commits an error, he damages himself or, at worst, his own team. A serious refereeing blunder, however, has a harmful impact on others. Rodwell’s ordering-off at Goodison Park in the 23rd minute of the match, with the score at 0-0, virtually crippled at a stroke Everton’s prospects of a productive day.

In the most extreme cases, it is possible at the end of one of those seasons that have been so closely contested that they have been settled by a single point (or even goal difference) to reflect that a championship itself, or relegation or a place in Europe, may have been determined or denied by a clearly identifiable bad decision.

Now, the SFA’s fast-track disciplinary procedure may result in swift justice for the guilty, but it will also mercilessly expose the ineptitude of officials who often seem to be the only people in the stadium to have missed the obvious. And, since the attention of the compliance officer who judges whether or not an incident demands investigation may be triggered by a report from any source, it may turn us into a nation of snitches.