Rangers legend calls out the SFA and Scottish referees

As we mentioned before, Graeme Souness has featured heavily in the press following a strong Premier Sports promotional media appearance. The former Rangers legend has had plenty to say. We have covered, of course, his views on recruitment, with which we could not agree more. However, he also called out Scottish referees.

Souness highlights Rangers’ bad luck

Souness decided not to name anyone or be too direct. However, he suggested that Rangers have lacked luck in certain areas. He refused to expand and implied that we know what those areas are.

Yes, we do. Rangers definitely lacked luck when it came to refereeing decisions.

However, let us not forget that Celtic had the same problem until around February. They believed the diabolical refereeing in Scotland would cost them the title.

Of course, this could have been utter bitterness because they were not very good. Celtic did not deserve to win that title across the whole season. How they managed to do so, we will never quite know. And neither will they.

Both sides suffered poor decisions

However, Souness is not wrong. Rangers suffered some bad luck with refereeing. That bad luck did not come from maliciousness.

The referees are simply incredibly incompetent. Rangers definitely suffered a great deal from that during the second half of the season.

Celtic were on the receiving end throughout autumn until around February. At that point, they began complaining very, very vividly about it in the press.

Rangers then started suffering during the second half of the season. Quite a few decisions went towards Celtic and against Rangers.

This was not maliciousness or deliberate malevolence. It was simply incompetence and it affected both sides of the Old Firm. Likely influenced by Celtic’s pressure.

Rangers only had themselves to blame for the utter collapse at the end of the season. That had nothing to do with refereeing. But it could have been helped had Rangers been better at playing Celtic at their own game. Putting big pressure on the officials. It’s part of the tactics in Scotland.

Scottish refereeing is abominable

However, Souness is not wrong. The refereeing in Scotland is absolutely abominable.

For a country which supposedly prides itself on being a first world nation, the refereeing quality does not reflect that.

It will never change while referees remain effectively part time in Scotland. They are not professionals.

Even in England, people complain about the refereeing and VAR, to say the least. However, those professional referees work around the clock and receive high level pay for their performances.

That is not the case in Scotland, where the pay is low and the referees are not properly trained.

The VAR training is almost as bad, if not worse. This explains why so many VAR decisions in Scotland are absolutely abominable.

Nothing will change without investment

Those decisions attracted major attention last season and Souness is right to call them out.

The one at Fir Park was, of course, the pivotal incident. To this day, it’s a huge talking point.

Everyone aside Celtic remains categorically convinced that it was never a penalty. They claim he headed the ball while the refs claimed it hit the hand/arm.

At the end of the day, Souness is bang on to call it out. However, we cannot see anything changing soon.

Referees would need to become professional and receive proper VAR training. That will not happen because it costs money.

And money is something we know Scotland doesn’t like to spend on meaningful things.