CELTIC manager Ronny Deila has described the performance of Scottish referees as having been "fantastic" since he joined the club.

 

His predecessor, Neil Lennon, had high profile issues with the standard of refereeing in this country and Celtic supporters in general have held long-standing grievances about their club has been treated by match officials. In 2010 referees went on strike over a row which developed from a Celtic game.

The refs felt they were not being adequately protected by the SFA after intense criticism when former referee Dougie McDonald was found to have lied to his supervisor and to Lennon about why he changed his mind about a Celtic penalty in a game at Tannadice.

Matters have calmed since that flashpoint, though, and yesterday Deila said that in his view referees in Scotland had performed better than those in Celtic's European games. Deila was speaking after the debate which flared over whether or not John Guidetti had dived to get a penalty against Hearts at the weekend. Celtic said Guidetti had slipped and the SFA will take no action against him. Despite a lack of contact with any Hearts player, referee Willie Collum gave Celtic a penalty, which Guidetti scored in a convincing 4-0 win.

"The referees have been fantastic so far since I came here," said Deila. "It is a high level of refereeing in Scotland. It has been worse in Europe, like last Thursday against Salzburg. We have more problems in Europe [with referees]. Sometimes you get something for you, sometimes you get something against you. I don't think a lot about it. If you perform well as a team then you will win games.

"We don't want to cheat. Of course we don't. I don't like that at all. I didn't think this situation with John was like that. The referees are trying to do their jobs as best as is possible. Sometimes they have been right, sometimes they have been wrong. But if you go through a whole season, it is going to be quite equal with decisions. The best team will win in the end. I have found the referees to be approachable and very good."

Deila, whose team will go three points clear at the top of the SPFL Premiership if they beat Partick Thistle at Parkhead this evening, said he was very surprised by how much media attention there was on "small details" from Celtic games but he insisted that Guidetti was blameless.

"We can discuss whether it was a penalty or not. But if it wasn't a penalty, that decision didn't win or lose the game. At that time, we were very dominant in the game and were going to win it anyway. In my opinion, it was no dive. John didn't do anything to try and get a penalty. It looked like he just slipped a little bit. That happens in football games."

Sky Sports pundit Neil McCann and Michael Stewart on BBC Sportscene said Guidetti had dived, but Deila was unconcerned. "In the media now, people have to speak a lot to get something powerful out which gets television viewers or clicks on the internet. As I've said before, I've done it myself in Norway and I know how it works. I know the pressure there is to say something.

"But I really don't care what any of the pundits said about John and I'm sure he won't think about it all either. If he was cheating, we would have to talk about it, but that wasn't the case. It's not something which should be talked about as much as it has."