CELTIC

Chris Sutton absolutely nails it as Celtic hero decries ‘very dangerous’ Rangers request

Ex-Celtic striker Chris Sutton has rightfully slammed Rangers for their alleged request asking referee Willie Collum not to officiate in any of their games in the future.

The Ibrox club were incensed after their Glasgow derby defeat to Celtic last weekend, as Brendan Rodgers ended Philippe Clement’s unbeaten start as Rangers manager.

They feel Alistair Johnston should have been penalised for a handball and thus be awarded a penalty. However, VAR on the day Collum did not feel a clear and obvious error was made by on-field referee Nick Walsh and thus play continued.

Regardless, it was later confirmed Abdallah Sima was offside in the build-up to the ‘handball’ incident so the

penalty that the Rangers were yelling for would have been deemed invalid in any case.

However, this did not deter Rangers from releasing distracting remarks in which they expressed dissatisfaction about the non-penalty award and the absence of any mention of an offside check in the VAR audio, which the Govan hierarchy obtained access to in private following a request to the SFA to make public.

Rangers and the SFA are currently engaged in combat. So much so that they allegedly asked Collum to stop officiating Rangers games going forward at their meeting with the governing body.

In response to that request, which was first made public by the team’s media partner Hand & Heart, Sutton has written in his weekly Daily Record column and called out Rangers for threatening to establish a

Chris Sutton has slammed Rangers

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Here’s what Sutton had to write, which is absolutely spot on: “What Rangers’ statement has brought is

a heaping dose. And all of this is superfluous. It agitates the situation and increases the pressure on referees in the future.

It is none of their business to take the path that they are taking by requesting that Willie Collum not participate in any of their games. Setting such a precedent is also quite risky.

“What would the procedure be in that case? Will we then carefully examine the referees’ pasts, their blunders, and their cumulative performances?

We are aware of Scotland’s nature, which is a can of worms best left unopened. Collum made a subjective call that was incorrect, thus you could doubt his competence there. I think we can all agree that there are things that VAR can do better.

“However, you cannot demand that an official be taken out of your games because they made a subjective error in judgment. It is simply not going to occur.

“I want to ask again: What was the Rangers’ purpose? Were they acting for the benefit of all clubs and the overall development of Scottish football?

Or was it done to put more pressure and deflection on referees later on? We all know which one it is, I believe, and it is totally needless.

“You have to choose your battles because there is a title race going on. Scottish football didn’t need Willie Collum at the time, thus they made the incorrect choice.

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