The IFAB rule everyone is forgetting that totally ends Celtic vs County red card debate

Add as preferred source on Google

It’s no surprise to many Celtic fans that we’re now into day 3 of the over-analysation of a decision that went for us.

Indeed, Celtic were 3-0 up against Ross County and cruising regardless before Kayne Ramsay’s dangerous challenge on Tom Rogic saw him sent off. We went on to win the game 4-0, and you could even say playing against 10 disrupted our own rhythm a touch.

Forget any of the penalty decisions we should’ve had of course. It’s more fun for the media to talk about the decisions that go for us instead. County boss Malky Mackay was the first to have a go alongside his defender Connor Randall [Press and Journal].

Then we have ex-refs such as Steve Conroy today saying that it “wasn’t even a foul” [Get Involved Referee Podcast]. Dermot Gallagher, meanwhile, was on Sky Sports today saying that Ramsay was “unlucky”.

But there’s nothing unlucky about it. All Don Robertson did in this very instance was follow the official IFAB rules. According to the official Laws of the Games document [Law 12.3], it states that: “A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.

“Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.”

IFAB make it quite clear – Tom Rogic was endangered and excessive force was used

You can argue whether that rule is fair or unfair all day. But the fact is that it is indeed a rule. It’s not down to us to interpret that in any way we like and assume we’re all correct.

Rogic had to go off even after Ramsay was red carded. He’s also had to drop out of international duty by the looks of things – presumably down to that particular knock. That’s not what we want to see 2 weeks before the Glasgow derby, but more pertinently, that’s evidence of the fact it was a dangerous challenge.

You then combine that with the fact that excessive force was clearly used. It’s easy to slow the footage down and make it look like a clean, controlled challenge. But the truth is it was reckless and Rogic is clearly caught by that excessive force in the end.

You can’t say because he stays on his feet without lunging in that it isn’t s ending off. Where on earth is that in the IFAB rules? You can endanger an opponent and use excessive force but only if you stay on your feet or get the ball first?

There’s no debate to even be had here. It was a red card and County deserved to be down to 10 men. Let’s not pretend it was their only heavy-handed challenge of the afternoon either. It was clear they were simply rocked by being 3-0 down so early into the game.

Regardless, we move on. It’s time to put an end to this, we do after all have IFAB on our side. Then again, it’s a decision that’s gone for Celtic – what do we really expect?

In other news, Kyogo reveals his favourite Celtic game; can’t hide his love for the “amazing” support