The Lunnys Are Running The Asylum

I SEE Vincent Lunny, the unqualified, unelected SFA Compliance Officer has decided that Heart's Ryan Stevenson's tackle on Hibs captain James McPake during the recent Edinburgh "Derby" is worthy of a two-game suspension. This is yet another example of my contention that the "lunatics" have well and truly taken over the Hampden "asylum".

 

To go to basics: football doesn't have "rules", it has "laws" (not that that makes much difference); these laws are enforced by the match referee, who, as Law V (i) grandly proclaims: "is the sole judge of fact".

 

Down the 150 years since the Football Association was formed to organise and govern the game in England, through the start of international football in 1872, via the formation of FIFA, there have been literally thousands of instances whereby referees apparently got things wrong - England's third goal in the 1966 World Cup Final; the over-the-line cross and goal in the 1932 FA Cup Final; Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal (come on England, the ball "played" him); the unawarded Frank Lampard "goal" in the England v Germany World Cup clash in 2010, (pay-back for 1966 perhaps). All these decisions have stood - in no case has any governing body ruled that because of an apparent refereeing error, the game should be replayed.

 

The view has grown over the years: "Yes, referees, being human, make mistakes, get over it and move on". Now, here we have Mr Lunny, a man with no refereeing qualifications of experience, a man who has never played a single game as a professional footballer, acting as judge and jury in over-ruling referees, in this case Willie Collum, one of Scotland's indeed Europe's, senior officials.

 

I accept, by the way, that Mr Collum has some "form" with regard to controversy. That said, he remains for my money a top official. He may well have had an "off" day in the Edinburgh Derby; perhaps he got this call wrong, but, when he decided to take no action on Stevenson's tackle, that should have been the end of it.

 

In appointing Mr Lunny the SFA, I believe, exceeded their authority. If we accept that there is need for a compliance officer to mentor contentious refereeing decisions and perhaps review decisions made post-match, then hand-down bans, then the appointment of such officers ought to be done through FIFA and IFAB, the International Football Associations Board - the game's supreme law-making body.

 

Here, Scotland does still have clout, with its own place on IFAB. If the SFA is so keen to see compliance officers installed and given real clout, then they ought to table motions at IFAB, to alter the wording of Law V (i), I would suggest they follow Rugby Union's lead and change the wording to: "The referee is the sole judge of fact, as regards events during the duration of the game". This would allow for proper review post-match, again provided the duties and scope of authority of any FA's compliance officer was agreed and set down on paper.

 

Any compliance officer appointed then had to have refereeing qualifications or considerable experience of top-flight football. I am sure, human nature being what it is, we would still have argument and dispute, but, at least the "judges" we were criticising would be experienced men who had earned their right to sit in judgement, not jumped-up articled clerks like Mr Lunny.

 

 

 

IT'S crunch time this week for Terry Butcher, arguably the most-popular Englishman in Scotland. Does he stick with Inverness Caledonian Thistle or return to England to manage Barnsley?

 

Now, in terms of: "where would I rather live, Inverness or Barnsley?" it's a no-brainer, he stays put. There is the small question of a possible crack at European football, should ICT pick-up where they left off when the SPL returns from it's winter shut-down. Add the intrigue of whether, after three "failures", at Coventry, Sunderland and Brentford, Butcher still feels he has to prove himself in his native land; sprinkle-in the bigger budget he will enjoy in the Championship, a far-richer league than the SPL, and Big Tel has some serious thinking to do.

 

Also, he just might feel that, should Ally McCoist fall or be pushed off the platform at Copeland Road subway station, he might have a chance of becoming boss of Rangers - decisions, decisions.

 

I hope he stays in Inverness for the time being. See the romantic story through to the end Tel.

 

 

 

WELL done to the magical Lionel Messi, on winning his fourth straight Balon d'Or. And while you're enjoying your triumph wee man, think how lucky you were not to have been born in Scotland, where you'd have been telt at 12: "Sorry son, you're too wee tae ever be a fitba player".