Craig McLeish may have come into the St Mirren job with an impressive coaching pedigree at the club behind him, but his naivety to the politics of management in Scotland betrayed him at the weekend. How else to explain his misguided notion that the Judicial Panel might have a sense of humour?
Unfortunately for him, particularly in a climate where former Motherwell midfielder Elliot Watt was recently hit with a four-match ban and new Rangers manager Derek McInnes picked up a three-match ban (with another suspended) for their own comments on a refereeing decision, McLeish’s defence that his poke at ref Sean Murdoch live on the telly on Sunday was ‘tongue in cheek’ is unlikely to get him off the hook.
If you missed the whole brouhaha, it all started when the Scottish FA appointed Murdoch – a former professional goalkeeper – to oversee St Mirren’s final League Cup group stage match against Dunfermline.
Some Saints fans were quick to note that Murdoch played 200-odd games for the Pars during his career, with those who like to pair a tin-foil hat with their black and white stripes foretelling that the big man would likely favour his old club in his decision-making to their detriment, and that he might even have a significant impact on the outcome of the match.
Oh, how the rest of us scoffed at the notion. Until, eh, that’s exactly what happened.
"Who was he a goalkeeper for?" McLeish quipped in his post-match interview, which while accompanied by a cheeky grin, is likely to be met with a po-faced response from those on-high.
Now, I am not for one scintilla of a second suggesting that Murdoch favoured Dunfermline with his calls, consciously or otherwise. But Willie Collum’s heart must have sank when his boy in black blew to disallow a St Mirren goal in the first half of a tight contest, for no other apparent reason than the Pars current keeper Aston Oxborough barrelling into Saints forward Eseosa Sule before Samuel Ramos tucked it home.
The SMiSA Stadium, particularly the angriest stand in Scottish football™, had the sort of reaction you might expect, with everything from his football leanings to the marital status of his parents being brought immediately and loudly into question.
And wouldn’t you know it? As the game ticked into stoppage time with the score remaining deadlocked, Murdoch pointed to the spot to give his old team the chance to slot home a late winner and progress to the next round of the cup. Never mind the fact that the penalty award was a fair enough decision. For some, this was clear corruption.
And herein lies the problem. For years, fans, pundits, managers and players have bemoaned the fact that refs ‘haven’t played the game, so don’t understand it’. So, when a former player does rise through the divisions and then referees games towards the top level, they can’t then turn around and say former players shouldn’t be refereeing games when particular teams are involved.
Where would it end? As well as his two stints at East End Park, Murdoch came through the ranks at Hearts, played for Forfar Athletic, Hamilton Accies and Hibs. Who he supported as a boy, by all accounts, to open up another can of worms.
Are we saying that this should preclude him from refereeing matches involving these teams? Or their rivals? If Jim Hamilton ever became a ref he’d have to officiate overseas.
Supposing Murdoch continues on his trajectory, impressing the assessors and becoming one of the top refs in the country. Would the Edinburgh derby be off limits?
For some, yes.
There are those who even want Scottish refs to declare and presumably prove who their boyhood allegiances lay with, and that they should not be able to officiate matches involving their erstwhile/current heroes or their rivals.
It is a practice that has been in operation in England for the past few years, where referees have to fill out a form at the start of the season declaring any potential conflicts of interest. Although the list of teams they support is not made public, they aren’t appointed to matches involving those sides.
Not that it has stopped the odd stooshie kicking off in any case. There was once an almighty rammie when Nottingham Forest’s normally shy and retiring owner Evangelos Marinakis’s pawprints seemed to be all over a social media post put out by the club, panning the FA for allowing Stuart Attwell to be a VAR official at one of their matches when they were thick in the mire of a relegation battle with Attwell’s beloved Luton Town.
Further to that, an important difference between the landscape up here and that down south, in case you hadn’t noticed, is that the talent pool in Scotland is so shallow that it would be more accurately classified as a puddle. We simply cannot afford to find reasons to spread our lot out any thinner, particularly if it is to the exclusion of promising refs like Murdoch from our biggest matches.
There are so many ways by which our officials can improve, and the standard does have to improve. But we have to believe – and I do, for the record – that any mistakes they do make are honest ones. Whether they have supported, or played, for any team in the past, it seems far-fetched that they would jeopardise their career by favouring one team or another, whether they have cheered them on from the stands or have once been in their employ.
And particularly ludicrous, I might add, that a ref like Murdoch with it all before him would risk that career to give Dunfermline a leg up in the Premier Sports Cup group stage.
Refs will make errors, as Murdoch undoubtedly did at the weekend. An absolute clanger. But for me, the more former players we can encourage into the profession, the better. They will bring with them their knowledge of the game, which in theory, should improve the flow and make the whole thing a better experience for everyone.
Whether we are quite ready for Nacho Novo or Frank McAvennie to take charge of an Old Firm fixture, I have my doubts, but let’s hope that Murdoch can blaze something of a trail for former pros. And that we give him the room to do it.
