Former Celtic star Chris Sutton raises referee question

Former Celtic star and top Scottish Football pundit, Chris Sutton, has again added his voice of concern over the standard of refereeing in Scottish football. Once again, and still in the absence of VAR, there were more controversial decisions during the recent matchweek which left everyone debating what should or should not have happened. Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurrence.

Handball and red card tackles in Celtic’s emphatic win over Ross County were followed by a rather questionable penalty awarded in favour of the Rangers, away at Dundee.

This follows on from an unexplained application of the handball rules, when a goal from Daizen Maeda was incorrectly chalked off last week in Celtic’s Scottish Cup tie against Dundee United.

Sutton took to social media at the weekend to express his view on what appeared to be a very soft penalty that the Rangers were awarded against Dundee. The former Celtic star tweeted out:

Former Celtic star, Chris Sutton, raises the question about refereeing once again

At last week’s Scottish Cup quarter-final, John Beaton had ended up not giving a goal for Maeda, which when taking the new rules under consideration, should have been awarded without any question. Sutton had spoken out about that decision as well.

Of course, VAR, when introduced may overcome instances like this for individual decisions. Again though there needs to be a continuing drive for higher standards for the refereeing. At the end of the day, those sitting in front of the television screens, in control of the system, will be the referees as well.

Thus, it is safe to say that there is room for a lot of improvement when it comes to refereeing in Scottish football. And hopefully, over the coming years, we will be able to see steps being taken in the right direction to make sure that it is at the highest level possible.