World Football: Paranoia Touches Rangers Fans

Traditionally, Celtic was considered to have the most paranoid fans in Scotland.

Memories are long in Scottish football, and generations of Celtic supporters have grown up on a rich and varied diet of the tales of corrupt and cheating referees of a blue hue.

The names are legendary: Mike McCurry follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Bobby Davidson, Brian McGinlay, Bob Valentine, David Syme, Hugh Dallas, etc.

In recent years, even the linesmen have been carving a reputation for themselves. Gordon McBride, Andy Davis and others have unwittingly become household names through dubious decisions favouring Rangers or slighting Celtic.

To give those unfamiliar with the Scottish game a flavour of the Parkhead Paranoia, the following examples are fairly par for the course.

1) Rangers v. Kilmarnock, April 1998. As Rangers attempt to win a 10th title in a row, Grade 1 ref Bobby Tait asks for, and is given, one final match at Ibrox before he retires. With Rangers struggling to find a breakthrough, Tait adds on four minutes of stoppage time in the first half, and five minutes in the second. It backfires spectacularly on him, though, when Kilmarnock score what proves to be the winner in the fourth minute of added time.

A week later, Celtic clinch the title with a win over St. Johnstone.

Earlier in the season, Tait was the referee for two Celtic-Hearts matches. In the first, at Tynecastle, Celtic were 1-0 ahead in a match which had seen no significant stoppages. This did not prevent Tait from adding on five extra minutes, however.

With seconds remaining, Hearts scored a deflected equaliser. From the restart, Celtic played straight through the Hearts defence and with Morten Wieghorst about to shoot, Tait blew for full-time.

A month later, at Celtic Park, Celtic were being held 0-0 in a match that had seen several stoppages, mainly due to Hearts' rather robust approach, which Tait happily tolerated. He added on a measly 47 seconds of injury time. 

2) Celtic v. Rangers, May 1999. Rangers can clinch the title with a win. Referee Hugh Dallas courts controversy, sending off Celtic's Stephane Mahe for a foul that barely merits a yellow card. This sparks mayhem inside the stadium as Mahe loses his cool and rants and raves at Dallas for what seems like several minutes. When play resumes, Dallas awards Rangers a corner. As Rangers' Giovanni van Bronkhorst runs to take the corner, Dallas shares a laugh and joke with the Dutchman, patting him on the ass as they pass each other.

From the corner, Celtic's Vidar Riseth jumps for the ball with a Rangers player, and Dallas amazingly points to the spot for a penalty no one else in the stadium could see. Dallas is pelted with coins from the crowd for his troubles and this diverts attention away from his series of quite incredible decisions, which alter the course of the match and allow Rangers to take the title.

3) Hearts v. Rangers, March 2005. With Rangers sitting six points ahead of Celtic (who had played two games fewer), they visit Hearts and with seconds remaining are being held 1-1. As a high ball is played into the Hearts goalmouth, Rangers defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos collapses theatrically after challenging for a header and referee Hugh Dallas (remember him?) signals for a Hearts goal kick.

Violent scenes ensue when assistant referee Andy Davis flags for a penalty kick no one else in the ground (not even the other Rangers players) had seen.

Rangers won the league that season by a single point. The two extra points gained by that penalty decision proved crucial. Andy Davis was a former Ibrox season-ticket holder (allegedly).

4) Rangers v. Dundee United, April 2008.

With Rangers' league challenge threatening to come off the rails, Mike McCurry takes charge of their final home match of the season. Rangers finish the match 3-1 winners, but only after McCurry denies United a clear penalty when David Weir takes down Noel Hunt from behind, and disallows a Dundee Utd goal for offside, despite the ball having been played to the scorer by a Rangers player. This was merely the latest in a series of strange decisions by McCurry that had benefitted Rangers over several seasons.

The typical response from the media and Rangers to decisions like this is a wry shake of the head at Celtic paranoia, and platitudes about how "these things even themselves out over the course of the season."

Celtic fans are repeatedly told that while our officials might well make mistakes from time to time, they are scrupulously honest, and accusations of pro-Rangers bias are in extremely poor taste.

What often goes unsaid is that Celtic Football Club have rarely publicly complained about officials. Cynics might say there is no need when their fans are so vocal.

But something strange has been happening these past couple of seasons. You see, some decisions have begun to go against Rangers. Referees and linesmen with names like Conroy and Murphy have even had the audacity to apply the rules to the Ibrox men.

Heaven forfend, controversial decisions have even been going Celtic's way!

And so, the paranoia bug has bitten the Rangers fans.

Last season, they vociferously complained about free kicks being awarded to Celtic on the edge of the penalty box (as good as penalties when Shunsuke Nakamura steps up to take them), corners wrongly awarded, and goals (the ball being put in the net after play had been stopped) against Celtic disallowed.

These decisions were thoroughly dissected in the media, and referees' supervisor Don McVicar (who usually appears in the press to tell those complaining about referees to shut up) claimed that the referees have to start getting decisions right.

The same Rangers paranoia has been in overdrive recently, with the embers of three decisions in particular being raked over. The thing is, though, it's not just Rangers fans who are complaining bitterly about these decisions—it is also the club itself with Rangers manager Walter Smith (or "Walter" as he is more commonly referred to in the Scottish press) making statements that would have earned any other manager an invitation to Hampden Park to explain himself, before being presented with a fine for bringing the game into disrepute.

Back in August, American winger DaMarcus Beasley looked to have scored a late winner in a match against Aberdeen. It was ruled offside. Hundreds of square miles of rainforest were cut down for the angst-ridden reports. It was a marginal decision, and probably an incorrect one, but hey, officials make mistakes, don't they?

One of the great myths of this season is that Kris Boyd had a perfectly good goal disallowed in a match against Motherwell in November.

Actually, Rangers were on the end of another offside decision, but to claim a goal was disallowed is disingenuous. As the ball was played to Boyd, linesman Tom Murphy raised his flag and the referee blew his whistle to stop the game. The players stopped and began to move towards the halfway line and the Motherwell keeper moved to the edge of his box. Only Boyd played on, hitting the ball into an empty net.

"Walter" was incandescent with rage after the match, charging that, "Mr. Murphy was quick to allow a goal from Scott McDonald at Celtic Park last season and he was quick to disallow that one tonight."

The latest incident to enrage Rangers supporters is the "goal that never was" on Wednesday evening against Hibs. The story goes that linesman Martin Cryans should have awarded a goal after a Nacho Novo effort was cleared off the line by Ross Chisholm.

TV picures have proven inconclusive, and bearing in mind that the whole of the ball has to cross the line, it was probably the correct decision.

"Walter" had the following to say: "Naturally, there is a sense of grievance among the players about it. I have seen it again on TV and I would have given a goal — but I’m biased.

"I feel the Hibs player has had to put his foot right round the ball to get there. If you are pro-Rangers, you will think that. If you are anti-, you won’t."

The difference now is that no one is saying these things even themselves out over the course of the season. No one is defending the integrity of our match officials. Miles of newsprint are wasted uncritically quoting Rangers' complaints verbatim, and "Walter" is allowed to rant about officials with Irish-sounding names putting spokes in the wheels of Rangers' title challenge.

The paranoid rumblings coming out of Ibrox at the moment are indicative of the tense nature of this season's title race, and the importance for Rangers of stopping Celtic making it four league wins in a row.

Costs will be cut at Ibrox regardless of the outcome, but winning the league (and with it the guarantee of Champions League bounty) might be the only thing that keeps Rangers out of administration before the year is done.

"Walter" does not have a recent track record of handling pressure well and this does nothing to quell suspicions that Rangers might be heading for another late-season collapse.