Chris Sutton absolutely nails it as Celtic hero decries ‘very dangerous’ Rangers request

Chris Sutton, a former striker for Celtic, has properly criticised Rangers for supposedly requesting that referee Willie Collum not officiate any of their games going forward.

After losing to Celtic in the Glasgow derby last weekend, Brendan Rodgers destroyed Philippe Clement’s perfect start to the Rangers managerial career, leaving the Ibrox club furious.

They contend that Alistair Johnston ought to have received a penalty after being handballed. Play went on, though, since VAR that day did not believe on-field referee Nick Walsh had made a glaringly obvious mistake.

However, it was later established that Abdallah Sima was offside prior to the “handball” incident, meaning the penalty Rangers were demanding would have been ineffective regardless.

However, this did not deter Rangers from releasing distracting remarks in which they expressed dissatisfaction about the non-penalty award and the absence of any mention of an offside check in the VAR audio, which the Govan hierarchy obtained access to in private following a request to the SFA to make public.

Rangers and the SFA are currently engaged in combat. So much so that they allegedly asked Collum to stop officiating Rangers games going forward at their meeting with the governing body.

Responding to that request, which was first made public by the team’s media partner Hand & Heart, Sutton has written in his weekly Daily Record column and chastised Rangers for attempting to establish a “very dangerous precedent”.

Chris Sutton has slammed Rangers

What Sutton had to say was exactly right when he wrote this: “What Rangers’ statement has brought is a pile-on.” And all of this is superfluous. It agitates the situation and increases the pressure on referees in the future.

It is none of their business to take the path that they are taking by requesting that Willie Collum not participate in any of their games. Setting such a precedent is also quite risky.

“What would the procedure be in that case? Will we then carefully examine the referees’ pasts, their blunders, and their cumulative performances?

We are aware of Scotland’s nature, which is a can of worms best left unopened. Collum made a subjective call that was incorrect, thus you could doubt his competence there. I think we can all agree that there are things that VAR can do better.

“However, you cannot demand that an official be taken out of your games because they made a subjective error in judgement. It is simply not going to occur.

“I want to ask again: What was the Rangers’ purpose? Were they acting for the benefit of all clubs and the overall development of Scottish football?

Or was it done to put more pressure and deflection on referees later on? We all know which one it is, I believe, and it is totally needless.

“You have to choose your battles because there is a title race going on. Scottish football didn’t need Willie Collum at the time, thus they made the incorrect choice.

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