BBC Sportscene now beyond parody with latest absurd reason to discredit Celtic goal

By John McGinley

March 7, 2022

Scottish Premiership highlights show BBC Sportscene has a reputation for focusing on negatives, engaging in a ‘trial by Sportscene’ culture of refereeing analysis and entering into overwrought debates about marginal decisions.

It seems they are now beyond parody, going by their latest Celtic punditry.

In a segment titled “Should Celtic’s second goal have counted? BBC pundits assess“, former Rangers players Steven Thompson, Kenny Miller and Richard Foster get the magnifying glasses out for any reason possible to potentially disallow the own goal, rather than praise a sweeping team move.

They find one incident, not even brought up by Livingston boss David Martindale, in their attempts to discredit Celtic’s second of the afternoon. A potential throw-in at the other end of the pitch.

Regardless of whether or not you think the ball is out of play, bringing it up is absurd for a few reasons.

First of all, it’s in an entirely different phase of play from when the goal is scored. It’s not as Carl Starfelt has hit it up the pitch and it has led to a chance.

Secondly, if the ball had gone out of play it would have been a throw-in to Celtic anyway and probably been taken quickly, with the Bhoys likely still streaming up the pitch. It’s not as if Livingston would have had possession in our half.

And finally, it’s such a marginal call that to actually devote time on national television to it from a camera angle that is impossible to decipher definitively, when a qualified assistant referee is a few feet away is just trouble-making.

These aren’t even incidents that VAR would be used to clear up, so what is the end goal of bringing it up? It’s just unnecessary. It’s a potential throw-in for goodness sake, it’s not a wild challenge that may have been a red card.

We’re really down the rabbit hole with punditry like this and it’s all getting a bit tiring, to be honest.

Highlights programmes shouldn’t be hard to produce. Get together a couple of straight-talking people who like an argument, get the football on and talk about the important matters.

Nobody is asking for Sportscene to be Hawk-Eye, judge and jury on minute issues that no-one else is talking about. Sort it out. Scottish football deserves a national highlights show that people look forward to, not this nonsense.

In other news, Report: 4 English teams chasing signature of Celtic loan defender Cameron Carter-Vickers.