It's a ref's life

On the way to watch Dumbarton triumph over Alloa Athletic last weekend, I bumped into David Brownlie on the train. (It's a rather strange route from Edinburgh. You have to travel via Stirling. But it's still a while lot easier to reach since they opened the station at Alloa a couple of years ago).

Anyway, David goes to watch the Sons fairly often these days, but in the past he was a professional referee. So that's where the conversation drifted. Many years ago, when I realised that I had no chance whatsoever of playing the game I love at any significant level, the thought of refereeing occurred to me. But other possibilities and priorities submerged the idea. Watching the game these days and listening to the reactions around me, I'm rather glad.

Almost every decision that doesn't go 'our' way (whoever 'we' happens to be) tends to get grumbled about at best, or greeted with a volley of abusive accusations of partisanship, at worst. Just as kids are forced into adulthood too soon in the hothouse climate of children's and youth football (egged on by parents "living the dream"), so it seems that we adults are often pushed back into regressive childhood assumptions that anything that goes wrong in life is a personal insult, a conspiracy or the fault of the rule-keepers.

Debates about the laws of the game, training and technology rage on. But the basic issue is that the men and women in the middle have a relatively thankless and ill-remunerated task. Even so, they do their best, work hard to improve, and make the game possible. I might not always like their decisions, but I'm grateful.
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Time to stop the excuses for sexism in football

Even more depressing than the puerile, bigoted and deeply unfunny 'banter' that got Sky TV presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys into hot water over their comments about referee Sian Massey, is the number of otherwise decent people who are feebly trying to excuse it. Demeaning comments and behaviour towards women are still regarded as acceptable in many corners of the football universe. But as BBC journalist Jim Spence says in his eloquent blog, there is No place for sexism in Scottish football. Or anywhere else, for that matter. It's as simple as that.

Some are complaining about Gray's dismissal, but who would seriously want to (or should have to) work with someone who thought it was fine to dangle his mic at you, and tell you to "tuck this in for me, love" as he gestured towards his trousers during a commercial break? That's the kind of thing his colleague and co-presenter Charlotte Jackson had to put up with. What it illustrates is that 'normalising' prejudice segues readily into discriminatory and degrading behaviour. It's neither a 'private matter' (as some have tried to claim), nor something that can be simply pushed aside as the product of 'political correctness' (a lazy, catch-all dismissal deployed by people who don't want to be bothered with rational thought when faced with violations of decency and justice).

North of the border, Scottish referee Morag Pirie, who officiates in the Highland League and the Third Division, commented on the Gray and Keys affair: "They [made] the comments before the game even started. They hadn't even seen [Massey] perform. It's disrespectful to her as a person. It's hard enough to encourage women to take up refereeing as it is." Quite.

Meanwhile, Sian Massey last night found herself being stood down from running the line for Crewe Alexandra's match with Bradford, for fear of the reaction it might produce. That shows just how spineless our football authorities are in the face of prejudice against women.

So within a week of officiating (very well) at an English Premier League match, the recipient of the prejudice finds herself ruled out of participation in a Football League fixture and then reduced to refereeing in the sixth tier of the pyramid this coming Saturday: the Blue Square Bet North game between Corby Town and Eastwood.

Mind you, Corby manager Graham Dury is to be thoroughly congratulated for his own response. He told BBC Radio Northampton: "If they've dropped her to our level [because of the row], that's a shame. She stamps her authority on the game and she interacts with players well. We've got a top referee for this game... We've had Sian before and she had a fantastic game." Hopefully the publicity might at least increase the gate a bit.
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Hibs and Saints grind out a draw

Hibs try to turn the game

Not having thought about it as much as I should have beforehand, I definitely found that I had qualms as I approached Easter Road yesterday afternoon. Given that Hibernian's home fixture against St Johnstone and other Scottish Premier League games were only going ahead because overseas officials (in this case, three from Malta) had been drafted in to replace striking Scottish refs, turning up felt - as Walter Smith said the other day - "like being a scab". One official from Israel said he "felt deceived" by the SFA.  Thankfully I got a comp in the end. I think I might have balked at handing that cash over. Having been a trade union member for my whole working life, I've never crossed a picket line. Just 44 officials could hardly mount one at eight different venues in pursuit of their campaign to end abuse and false accusations of bias. Even so, they have a strong point to make and I've written to the SFA to back it. The issue is not that officials should be immune from criticism or accountability, but that they should be able to do a difficult and not very well rewarded job without intimidation.

Steven Thicott at half-time

As for this particular footballing encounter... well, as Dean King from Dumbarton (Helensburgh, actually) put it afterwards, "nice reffing, shame about the game!" We and his son had met up for a drink at the Middleton Bar before the match, since DFC were not playing due to the referees' action. Hibs are also my local side now that I reside in Leith. I'm 20 minutes' walk from their famous ground. Due to my prior Sons commitments and the happenstance of when midweek opportunities to see them come up, this is the first time I've got to Easter Road since moving to Edinburgh. (I've been to Tynecastle twice. Sorry Hibees!). With the new stand, it's a fine stadium, and I was fortunate enough to be given a seat a few rows up right on the half-way line. Not that this made the football any prettier. Both sides laboured, but a combination of poor decision making, iffy distribution and disappointing first touches on the ball made it a lacklustre display with barely any chances at either end. There will be better green and white afternoons or evenings, I'm sure. New boss Colin Calderwood will certainly be hoping so. For what it's worth, my man of the match was Hibs no 22, Daniel Galbraith. He worked his socks off.
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Scottish referees have a case

Although the withdrawal of labour by Scottish Category One and Two referees has regrettably led to the postponement of Dumbarton's home match against Alloa Athletic today, I have considerable sympathy with their case. What is unacceptable, however, is the way that lower league clubs are being punished for a problem essentially caused by managers, players and fans in the SPL - while Premier sides are spared the impact through the importation of overseas officials. Once again, those with least resources are being made to pay for a problem not really of their creation - though no doubt refs will point out that they get a fair bit of verbal aggro at all levels of the game. I'm told that had the action been targetted at a few clubs only, a legal backlash over contractual obligations would have followed. It's hardly just, but that's the way it goes.

Is industrial action the best way for officials to seek to end a culture of abuse and intimidation? Rangers' manager Walter Smith thinks so. He's a good man. So does Chick Young. And so does Grahame Smith of the STUC. It certainly seems to have quickened the reaction of the SFA and the SFL. According to Scotland on Sunday, referees will now demand points deductions for clubs who ignore warnings about their behaviour and continue to verbally abuse officials and question their integrity. Notes commentator Tom English: "As ever, the unspoken word in all of this is Celtic, the Parkhead club being at the heart of this increasingly bitter spat with the SFA."
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