Refereeing Celtic matches is now a no-win situation, declares Kenny Clark

NOT much has been left unsaid in the on-going row about referees but Kenny Clark kept up a stiff defence of his former colleagues yesterday, returning the focus on to Celtic and also managers who use their criticism of officials as a "smokescreen".

• Kenny Clark, left, with SFA president George Peat, centre, and Scottish swimmer Robbie Renwick at yesterday's Scottish Cup draw Picture: SNS

Clark, who retired from refereeing at the end of the 2007-08 season, accused Celtic of having compromised the integrity of the Scottish Premier League by making repeated requests for decisions to be clarified in the aftermath of matches involving the Parkhead club. Yesterday, after helping make the draw for the third round of the Scottish Cup, he agreed that recent events have increased the pressure on officials working at Celtic matches.

He also reported on the 'slipping morale' among referees, some of whom, Clark revealed, are thinking of following Steven Craven into premature retirement.

The Parkhead club asked for "clarification" after Dougie McDonald overturned his own decision to award Neil Lennon's side a penalty against Dundee United a week past Sunday, after consultation with Craven, his far-side assistant. Craven has since resigned and McDonald is the subject of an internal investigation led by Stewart Regan, the new chief executive of the Scottish Football Association.

Its findings are expected to be delivered today, following another week where the spotlight has fallen on referees. Willie Collum endured a fraught afternoon during Sunday's Old Firm game and was believed by many to have erred when awarding Rangers a penalty, from which the Ibrox side scored a third goal in the 3-1 win. He was later subjected to incidents of intimidation at his home in Lanarkshire.

"There is no question what the clubs do stokes the fires of the fanatics," said Clark, "And they don't need to be wound up any more." He blamed managers for using the perceived mistakes of officials for their own ends. "It avoids them having to answer difficult questions about their players' performance or their own tactics," Clark said, with Celtic's questioning of decisions in letters to the SFA a particular source of concern.

"If a decision is given in Celtic's favour, people will inevitably say that's because Celtic have been making complaints," Clark said. "If a decision is made against Celtic, again they will say that's because of the complaints Celtic have been making. It puts the match officials into something of a no-win situation."

Clark is no stranger to controversy having been the referee on duty when Duncan Ferguson head-butted Jock McStay during a game between Rangers and Raith Rovers in 1994. He did not even book the then Ibrox striker, who ended up in jail as a result of his actions that afternoon.Clark insisted he did not see the incident.

He is well aware, then, of the importance attached to referees' decisions but pleaded for officials to be treated in the same manner as players, whose mistakes are not pored over to the same extent.

"It's a sorry state of affairs when clubs are wanting explanations about individual decisions," he said. "It would be a strange world indeed if a referee was to ask a club why their star striker missed a penalty. Could he talk us through it? The striker wouldn't be able to explain how he did it. And by the same token if I was asked as a referee in a post-match interview why I didn't give a penalty, my answer would be that I thought it wasn't a penalty."

Despite all this, Clark would not discourage his own sons from taking up the whistle trade. He would, however, make them aware of the "realities of the situation", he said.

"What I should say is that I still think the positives of being involved in refereeing for people who are passionate about football far outweigh the negatives," Clark added. "I had my share of bad times, controversies and being shouted at in the street. But I still think the life I led as a referee, sharing a park with fantastic players who I would have paid to watch, was a good life."

However, Clark continues to be angered by managers who wade into referees. He was especially exercised to hear that Hearts manager Jim Jefferies had summed up the recent controversy by advising referees to toughen up. It was "a silly remark", Clark said. "I could do a whole speech about Jim Jefferies or (former Hibs manager] John Hughes," he added. "But I do find it astonishing that Jim is saying referees need to toughen up and accept that they are going to be called names or whatever. Jim is the one who was carping in the media only a few weeks ago that a referee had had the temerity to speak to him like a schoolchild.

"I think everyone knows that Jim behaved like a schoolchild that day and was completely in the wrong, because he had been given wrong information - as I understand it - by a member of his own staff. Nonetheless, he was the one who was in the wrong and he was the one who ended up having to give a public, although somewhat grudging, apology about his conduct and his remarks."