Ally McCoist shared some interesting views on Celtic and Rangers matches after a video of referee David Coote emerged.
On Monday, social media was ablaze with a video that allegedly showed English referee Coote making derogatory comments about Liverpool and their former boss, Jurgen Klopp.
Unless you have been living under a rock or you don’t use the crazy world of social media, then it has taken the football media by storm in the last 24 hours.
What’s interesting is that Coote officiated Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday evening at Anfield.
The video itself hasn’t been verified, nor does anyone know any background to it or when it was possibly filmed, but it has been widely criticised.
McCoist was sharing his thoughts on the matter by taking the debate ‘north of the border’ between Celtic and Rangers.
The Glasgow derby is one of the biggest games in football, McCoist was part of it for several years as a player and now he watches it from afar as a supporter.
Ally McCoist defends referees supporting Celtic or Rangers amid David Coote Liverpool video
Whether in England or Scotland, the media or the fans don’t know who officials support or grew up following as a kid – this isn’t made public by the people in charge.
As a result, it opens up the door for conspiracy theorists to guess and they normally go down the road of that particular ref supporting their rivals because he might have made glaring errors against them.
McCoist feels it ‘isn’t important’ to know who a referee supports and he ‘doesn’t have a problem’ with a referee from Scotland supporting either Celtic or Rangers, as he told talkSPORT.
“I don’t think it’s important,” responded McCoist on if it’s important to know who a referee supports. “Correct (because we are talking about integrity).
“Let’s take it north of the border, you would suggest that there would be numerous officials either supporting Rangers or Celtic, as they are the two biggest clubs in the country. Don’t have a problem with it. It wouldn’t interest me who they support. If they wanted to tell you who they supported or asked who they supported, and they told you. I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
“Once you start questioning the integrity, honesty and decision-making of the officials, that’s where you have a problem.”
McCoist dismisses suggestion referees favoured Rangers against Celtic
Celtic will meet Rangers in the Scottish Cup final on December 15 at Hampden, before their Premiership showdown on January 2 at Ibrox.
Expect fireworks during both of those matches because Celtic are flying high and only Aberdeen have been able to keep up with their relentless pace so far.
McCoist was asked when he was playing if he ever felt that an official was favouring Rangers over Celtic and he was pretty clear in his response.
“No, no. Never,” insisted McCoist. “Never. Never. I might have had referees where I felt they hadn’t given us a fair crack of the whip with decisions. But I never believed for a minute that they were supporters of the opposition.”
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