STEVEN Gerrard insisted last night that Willie Collum IS a good referee – but stood by the club’s decision to proceed with a formal complaint against the match official.
Both Gerrard and Rangers as a club are unhappy about the way Collum interpreted incidents in last week’s 2-0 win against St Mirren and the Old Firm defeat at Celtic Park in September.
The only Scot on Uefa’s elite list of referees, Collum first earned the ire of Rangers this season when ignoring what they felt was a foul by Tom Rogic on Ryan Jack in the lead-up to the only goal in Celtic’s 1-0 win against Rangers back in September.
Their dismay was only compounded when he dismissed Daniel Candeias in last weekend’s 2-0 win against the Paisley side for two yellow cards, the first for provocatively celebrating his opening goal and then after an exchange with St Mirren’s Anton Ferdinand.
Rangers felt the Portuguese winger, who as it stands will serve his one-match suspension against Motherwell tomorrow, was the innocent party on the second occasion, but saw their hopeful appeal on the grounds of ‘mistaken identity’ kicked out yesterday.
With cases of mistaken identity provide the only means for clubs to appeal against bookings, a club statement accompanying the official complaint said there was an ‘underlying issue which requires to be addressed”. Gerrard too feels that the disciplinary system in this country could be improved.
“They are not my words,” said Gerrard. “I don’t want to speak about any individual referee.
“There was a situation at Celtic we have spoken about being unhappy about,” said Gerrard. “There is a situation at St Mirren we are not happy about.
“Do we think he’s a good referee?” the former Liverpool player added. “Yes.
“Is it my responsibility to support referees in this country? Yes it is.
“But I am human as well and I have to give my opinion if we feel hard done by,” he added. “I have to let the powers that be decide the outcome of this.
“I don’t knock on a referee’s door unless I think I’ve got a valid conversation to have. I’m not going to be emotional or try to intimidate a referee.
“We had a normal conversation. He gave his explanation and I told him I disagreed with it. We shook hands and I left.”
While officially the process is still ongoing, Gerrard is resigned to facing Motherwell tomorrow without his Portuguese winger. He will also be without midfielder Lassana Coulibaly, who has suffered family beareavement.
“I’d love Candeias available,” said Gerrard. “Do I think it will happen? Probably not.
“The club have made a statement and it’s ongoing. I can only sit and wait but I’m not confident.
“I went to see the referee after the game. He said he provoked someone. I can’t see it. I’ve looked back at the pictures and I saw it live.
“I saw him having a normal conversation with the goalkeeper, there was no problem there.
“I saw Anton Ferdinand putting his hands round his neck and jabbing him on the chin. I’m not sure Daniel Candeias provoked anyone.
“Did he incite the crowd? Yes. Did he deserve a yellow card? Yes.
“Did he deserve two? In my opinion, no.
“Should common sense prevail? Yes. Will it? I doubt it.
“The reason we think it’s mistaken identity is because Daniel hasn’t done anything wrong to deserve a second yellow.
“I have to adapt to it [the disciplinary procedures]. It is what it is, it’s life up here. Can it improve? Yes.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel