Dallas admits to 'disappointing decisions that he's uncomfortable with'

Hugh Dallas has admitted that it has been a disappointing season with disappointing decisions that he has been uncomfortable with.

Predictably the man that has developed and groomed the current batch of referee's hasn't highlighted any specific incidents and has, true to form, reached out for the honest mistakes line. As if there could ever be any other possibility.

Once again over the weekend we witnessed amazing inconsistencies, Celtic players being booked for kicking the ball away and an Aberdeen player able to leave the field of play, celebrate with supporters and take his shirt off without referee Iain Brines reaching for a card.

No Celtic supporter has any real complaint about Stevie MacLean's actions, if he had ran towards the Celtic support, Adebayor-style, it would have been a different story.

He scored his goal, earned his team a point and deserves the right to celebrate. Just like Georgios Samaras at St Johnstone or Morten Rasmussen against Hamilton. 
Or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink at Inverness three years ago which left Brines with no option but to yellow card and send the Dutchman off.

That day Brines applied the letter of the law, presumably on Saturday he used the 18th law of the game Common Sense which covers up for refs disobeying the laws of the game.

There has been much more than goal celebrations for Celtic supporters to get concerned with this season, aside from the obvious deficiencies evident in the team.

Clear cut penalty decisions were denied early in the season against Dundee United, Hearts and Rangers which finally saw Dallas issue a second hand apology on behalf of Craig Thompson who admitted to one wrong penalty call in the October 4 Rangers-Celtic game.

Interestingly in today's admission Dallas claims: "the first question we always ask is: ‘Why?’ In order to understand the reason behind it we need to hear the reason."

Strangely enough no explanation was ever offered for Thompson's failure to see David Weir's foul on Shaun Maloney, human error we can assume.

Dallas met with SPL managers at Hampden last Friday and finally admitted that it hasn't been a season to be proud of from the countries referees but again opted out of giving specific instances or reasons for the error-strewn season.

He explained: "If I am being honest, I would say this has been a disappointing season with some disappointing decisions, which I wish we didn’t have to analyse and talk about.

“We examine these in detail at the Referee Development Department and the first question we always ask is: ‘Why?’ In order to understand the reason behind it we need to hear the reason.

“Obviously there have been incidents this season I have been uncomfortable with. I am not going to sit here and pretend mistakes have not been made but it is how the referees learn from these that is important."

Perhaps publically admitting to mistakes being made by referees and demoting them from SPL matches would be a good start in ensuring stronger decisions are made and referees who repeatedly fail to apply the laws of the game are removed from the higher profile matches.

That may initially effect referees, but equally, younger promising referees with a flair from the game, not necessarily coming through from the professions, may be encouraged if they see a clear route to the top based on ability and decision making rather than being a favourite of the games rulers.

Dallas's comments are clearly aimed at supporters starting to air their concerns and gathering evidence of repeated mistakes from referees.

Whether he has addressed his officials and issued clear guidelines on fairly trivial matters like post-goal celebrations remains to be seen.

With a Rangers-Celtic game looming less than two weeks away the SFA could do without their officials being ridiculed with the eyes of the world looking in via Sky Sports.

Thompson and Steve Conroy have both made major mistakes in these fixtures already this season, a repeat of that next Sunday will confirm today's statement from Dallas as having all the conviction of a political manifesto.

As the Champions League resumes this week we will see increasing numbers of younger, fitter, dedicated officials not afraid of making big decisions. 

None of them will be Scottish.

Article from SFA website

Dallas vow of silence broken within 24 hours

Surprise surprise, less than 24 hours after claiming 'I will make no further comment' to the SFA website Hugh Dallas was breaking his vow of silence today on Radio Scotland.

In an interview with Chick Young Dallas again went into detail about the SFA's tracking system and how they follow up on all correspondence.

The postal system in use at Hampden is unlikely to ever be a talking point amongst football supporters, players or manager.

"No one has explained the Royal Mail saga or Royal Mailgate as we call it," Dallas joked. "Comments from managers, coaches and also club directors is something that we treat very seriously.

RESPONCE
"They are frequenly in contact with me and they always get a responce. All of the copy letters, the Royal Mail tracking, the recepit of letters from Motherwell have all been catalogued and listed and sent back to Motherwell."

Perhaps if equal attention was given to refereeing standards as to following the post Jim Gannon would have less to complain about.

Dallas once again avoided the question of poor refereeing, Gannon's most outspoken comments on refereeing came after his opponents, Dundee United, had had two players sent off against Motherwell.

Bringing up Craig Thomson's performance in the October 4 Rangers-Celtic game reopened an old sore with Dallas.

Such were Thomson's errors that day that Dallas came out and admitted that he had made ONE mistake, other contentious incidents involving penalties and bookings were quickly swept over by the admission of one mistake.

EXPLANATION

No explanation was given for the mistake, we weren't told if the referee was unsighted or why he failed to award Celtic a penalty which would likely have also involved a booking for David Weir.

"I thought that the Dallas soap opera had finished in the 80s," Gannon replied when told about the latest comments from the man that was fourth official at the 2002 World Cup Final.

"The SFA PR machine is much stronger than hours they get on the front pages of newspapers and the BBC website."

Gannon's intervention and comments are a welcome breath of fresh air to Scottish football where too often mistakes and incompetence are excused with the time honoured 'these things even themselves out over the course of the season' excuse.

An invite to explain his comments is bound to be heading Gannon's way, that hearing at the SFA could be as explosive the great 'Who Shot JR' mystery of the eighties.

Touchy Dallas blasts back at Gannon and blames the Royal Mail

Referee supremo Hugh Dallas has launched an unprecedented attack on Motherwell boss Jim Gannon.

From behind his desk at the SFA where he has the title of Head of Referee Development Dallas said: "I am astonished by the personal attacks made by Jim Gannon, which have questioned my honesty and integrity, and wish to set the record straight on the chain of events that have created an air of tension and negativity."

Dallas then goes into a civil service like explanation over letters opened and unopened, the chain of command and the general breakdown in communications between Hampden and Fir Park.

At no point does Dallas explain, justify or answer the issues raised by Gannon about the quality of officials and the channels of communication between the SFA and the clubs although clubs have their responsibilities as they make up the SFA.

Paper chasing about 'I did this' and 'he said that' does nothing to address the issues, there is a tone to Dallas's statement which seems to infer that he is bigger than Gannon and who is Jim Gannon to publicly criticise Hugh Dallas?

NEGATIVE

Dallas statement said: "The type of adverse media coverage generated by Mr Gannon - which is extremely uncommon in Scottish football - has a negative effect on the confidence of referees and is counter-productive."

On their own Gannon's comments relating to decisions effecting Motherwell are stinging enough- bringing in the performance of Craig Thomson at the Rangers-Celtic match has clearly got under the skin of Dallas.

"His dissection of refereeing decisions involving Craig Thomson, one of UEFA’s elite referees, is wholly unnecessary," Dallas added.

The purpose of the Dallas statement is unclear, if he thought that it would end the matter he must be living in a parallel universe.

SCRUTINY

Adding fuel to the fire is a more reaction, the timing, on a Friday tea-time within 24 hours of a full SPL card will only put the referees that Dallas is so keen to protect under greater scrutiny.

Dallas, who was fourth official at the 2002 World Cup Final concluded by saying :"I will be making no further comment.”

I suspect that there will be lots more comment on this statement.

Dallas statement on the SFA website