MacDonald retires

[Glebeict]

I see that ref Macdonald has retired . What % of games that he was involved in did ICT got any points?

Seems he always buggered it up or do I just remember the bad games?

[Sean93]

Congratulations celtic your witch hunt as well as catholic church has succeeded dallas and dougal are gone!

Now they will almost certainly call for more heads and have set a dangerous trend that will almost certainly see more refs go.

Bravo.

[Scotty]

I see that ref Macdonald has retired . What % of games that he was involved in did ICT got any points?

Seems he always buggered it up or do I just remember the bad games?

To be fair, I didnt think McDonald was that bad a ref, certainly not biased, but as a referee, there is no excuse for lying about events/officiating within a game he is in charge of so he had to go.

Incidentally, he was the ref THAT NIGHT in Feb 2000 !!! He was also ref the following year for all 2 1/3 matches when we drew with Kilmarnock up here, then endured the "28 minute match" before going out in the official replay.

On the downside he was ref when we lost 5-1 at Ayr and when we lost 0-1 against Dundee in the Cup semi at Hampden.

He has done loads of ICT matches and I dont think we really have much cause for complaint. When he was good, he was good, when he was bad he was bad, but his inconsistencies always seemed to apply to both teams equally !!!

[bauhaus]

If he had been correctly demoted by the ref management this would not have happened. He was right to cancel penalty, but wrong to change report sent to Dallas. We all make mistakes, but none of us get our windows smashed, or our employers threatened and so on.

If SFA had dealt with the situation properly Scottish football politics wouldnt be in such a damn mess. Celtic will now feel they have the upper hand, and can bully the authorities. What will be next, Celtic allowed to choose the refs, and all will be ok until they make a mistake against them and whooosh it all starts again. Find it strange that of the five sacked along with Dallas, two were Catholics who thought the email was light hearted enough to forward, to people outside the SFA. So if you only forwarded it to a colleague seems that you are not anti catholic / anti celtic.

Seems that we just dont understand how big the chip on the shoulder of the Celtic family is, glad we live in a different world from that goldfish bowl of Glasgow.

Wouldnt it be ironic if McDonald turned out to be Catholic, something that never even crossed my mind until 5 weeks ago, to question any refs religion.

[Alex MacLeod]

Please can we take religion out of this debate. I am catholic. I have no leanings towards either of the old filth. I know many catholics who are Rangers fans and many protestants who.s loyalties lie on the other side, Many catholics even support ICT. This whole thing has nothing to do with religion but plenty to do with incompetence and attempts at justifying bad decisions. Anything else has been exploded by the media to try and justify their diabolical reporting methods. Someone forwards a joke by e-mail!! So what. Many, many of us have likely done the same. Catholic jokes, protestant jokes, Bin Laden jokes, Peodophile jokes. Jokes about those better of or worse of. It happens and we all respond to it. Why use that in the witch hunt?

Personally I think MacDonald was one of the better refs in Scotland. He made a mistake and he should have been punished yes. Not hounded out like some low life by the gutter press.

[Queen Beastie]

Was he not also involved when Lennon cheated to get Juanjo sent off, either the ref or 4th official? Lennon wasn't moaning about him then.

I think this whole ref thing is ott but McDonald did lie in his report and he should have gone when that was discovered, how could anyone trust his reports after that?

[robbylad]

Please can we take religion out of this debate. I am catholic. I have no leanings towards either of the old filth. I know many catholics who are Rangers fans and many protestants who.s loyalties lie on the other side, Many catholics even support ICT. This whole thing has nothing to do with religion but plenty to do with incompetence and attempts at justifying bad decisions. Anything else has been exploded by the media to try and justify their diabolical reporting methods. Someone forwards a joke by e-mail!! So what. Many, many of us have likely done the same. Catholic jokes, protestant jokes, Bin Laden jokes, Peodophile jokes. Jokes about those better of or worse of. It happens and we all respond to it. Why use that in the witch hunt?

Personally I think MacDonald was one of the better refs in Scotland. He made a mistake and he should have been punished yes. Not hounded out like some low life by the gutter press.

totally agree with just about everything you say. it's absolutely none of my business what your faith is and it has bu**er all to do with football.

however, tom english wrote a very interesting article in scotland on sunday suggesting that, certain of the cellik-minded fraternity, had used the pope as "a pawn" in the pursuit of their paranoid agenda. i'm just glad we don't see too much of this crap up here.

now i might take a few pelters for this, but, i'm pretty surprised that the church felt they had to intervene. i think a dignified silence would have been more appropriate. after all, it is only football!!!

[gordyfromsneck]

I have no doubt that there is an anti-Catholic anti-Celtic agenda in the West of Scotland. Catholics have historically been a persecuted minority in Scotland, but a big one. To accuse any ref of consistent bias, you better have a strong telescop to see what is in their hearts. Decisions come and go, and imho, Celtic, like Rangers get more than their share of 50/50 calls. All refs are football fans, so will have an allegiance to a certain team, but their decsions should stand scrutiny. But correctly, McDonald should walk.

[Libero]

Please can we take religion out of this debate. I am catholic. I have no leanings towards either of the old filth. I know many catholics who are Rangers fans and many protestants who.s loyalties lie on the other side, Many catholics even support ICT. This whole thing has nothing to do with religion but plenty to do with incompetence and attempts at justifying bad decisions. Anything else has been exploded by the media to try and justify their diabolical reporting methods. Someone forwards a joke by e-mail!! So what. Many, many of us have likely done the same. Catholic jokes, protestant jokes, Bin Laden jokes, Peodophile jokes. Jokes about those better of or worse of. It happens and we all respond to it. Why use that in the witch hunt?

Personally I think MacDonald was one of the better refs in Scotland. He made a mistake and he should have been punished yes. Not hounded out like some low life by the gutter press.

totally agree with just about everything you say. it's absolutely none of my business what your faith is and it has bu**er all to do with football.

however, tom english wrote a very interesting article in scotland on sunday suggesting that, certain of the cellik-minded fraternity, had used the pope as "a pawn" in the pursuit of their paranoid agenda. i'm just glad we don't see too much of this crap up here.

now i might take a few pelters for this, but, i'm pretty surprised that the church felt they had to intervene. i think a dignified silence would have been more appropriate. after all, it is only football!!!

You mean this one?

Tom English: 'In effect, they were using the Pope as a pawn in their game'

Published Date: 28 November 2010

By Tom English

You only had to look at some of the websites on Friday night to understand the sickness of some who attach themselves to football clubs in this country. In this instance, we are talking about Celtic. And we are talking about secrets and lies. When the news came through late in the evening that Hugh Dallas had left his post at the Scottish Football Association, a near-orgasmic glee broke out in some parts of cyberspace where Celtic fans were gathered. They contributed in their hundreds, if not their thousands, each one acclaiming this to be one of their greatest days, one of their finest triumphs. Their venom for Dallas was untrammelled. It was, and I use the word advisedly, an orgy of abuse.

A man claiming to be 71 years old said that the only sad part about it all was that his father and his uncles weren't alive to see it - "but I hope they're cheering in heaven". We had to cut the quote short because what he said about Dallas thereafter doesn't warrant repeating. Suffice to say that the pensioner has entered his dotage without a shred of perspective in this world. It was the kind of contribution that made you feel more sorry for the person who wrote it than the man it was written about.

These people purported to defend the Pope's honour in the wake of the toxic e-mail sent from Dallas's computer at Hampden. These are people who jumped on the bandwagon by declaring themselves insulted and offended by the lampooning of the Holy Father, who demanded that Dallas be sacked for a supposed act of sectarianism that grossly disrespected their faith and the head of their church. On Friday, this righteous flock turned into a baying mob and in that moment we saw their duplicity in all its ugliness. For these people, the Dallas e-mail wasn't an affront, it was an opportunity, a chance to hound a man they have had a grudge against for years and an association they've harboured bitterness about for generations

I agree, so often with the Old Firm, real issues are dissolved by pure and utter one-up-manship and it bypasses the important points.

Unfortunately a lot of the time the media blow the situation up and as soon as they do this it opens up the topic for people to stir up even more tension.

[CaleyD]

McDonald lied and he deserved some kind of punishment for that, even though I do have some sympathy and understanding as to why he may have done what he did.

What bothers me more is that we have one of the games biggest liars (Lennon) and one of politics biggest liars (Reid) trying to take the moral high ground over the issue. It's little wonder the game is being dragged through the gutter when the SFA, SPL and Scottish Press are providing these guys with any kind of credible platform to spout from.

It's at the stage where it no longer matters whether Lennon and Reid are right in their (veiled) accusations. Their actions and the manner in which they have conducted themselves has caused huge disruption and brought the game even further into disrepute...and for that they should be punished.

If Dundee can be hit with a 25 point deduction for bringing the game into disrepute by going into administration, then Celtic should be facing double that as the nature of their actions has done far more damage to the Scottish Football reputation than any club going into administration ever could....you can then add a fine to it for the disruption caused and the additional expense incurred as a result.

If those running the game want to restore any kind of credibility to the game then it's time for them to grow a pair and show that they are as willing to take the same action against the OF teams as they would against anyone else.