Referees have at the top of the agenda in Scottish football recently.
Rangers were given four penalties in their 4-0 win over St Mirren. Celtic were denied two penalties in their win over St Johnstone.
Most recently, a controversial match between Aberdeen and Rangers saw two penalties awarded and two players sent-off.
Now Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has had his say on the performances of referees. Intriguingly, he has defended them, to an extent.
He told Sky Sports: “These guys are doing their very best. The reality is they are amateurs.”
“They are amateur referees who sometimes make mistakes. We have to accept that.”
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It will be interesting to see how supporters react to the Celtic manager’s words. There is no doubt that trust in referee’s decisions is at a low ebb at the moment.
The Celtic boss rarely criticises match officials, even when they make what look to be obvious errors.
After the aforementioned St Johnstone game, he told the Herald that it would have been ‘harsh’ to award the Hoops a penalty in the second-half.
Would the standard improve if referees became professional? Who can say, after all, there are professional referees in England and mistakes are still made in big games.
It would be nice if a game passed off without any major incident involving referees, but at the moment those are few and far-between.
All at Celtic Park will be hoping the referee is not a factor in Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie with St Johnstone.