Over the years, there has been a lot of talk over the suspicious number of penalties a certain team seems to be awarded in the SPFL. In the three of the past five seasons, Rangers have received the highest number of penalties in the league.
It’s no wonder that their penalty-taking right-back has reached the levels of goals that he has.
GROWING CONCERN
The number of penalties received by Rangers has been a growing concern for a while, but more recently people have started to take notice of the lack of penalties against them. Rangers have now gone 52 league games without conceding a penalty. An absolutely staggering record.
In the match between Rangers and Aberdeen at Ibrox on Sunday, The Dons felt that they were denied a penalty when Connor Goldson grappled Dons forward Duk to the ground. The ball went out of play moments after, however VAR did not decide to tell the referee to go and have a look.
BBC pundit Michael Stewart shed light on the Rangers record when he tweeted:
“Aberdeen’s incredible run of clean sheets and victories came to an end at Ibrox while Rangers incredible run of no penalties against continued, incredibly.”
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson obviously was bitterly disappointed with the decision, although being happy with his team’s performance. Talking after the game Robson said:
“We all saw the brilliant chances that we created in the game, especially the first-half. We had two clear-cut one-on-one chances, there was a definite penalty as well first-half. So that’s three goals you could have had.”
He also asked in a post-match press conference:
“Where was VAR today? Was it in the building?”
During PLZ Soccer’s show yesterday, Peter Martin hailed it as an “alarming statistic” and suggested that:
“Referees are scared to award penalties in some situations because of the fear of the repercussions of it.”
This is largely due to the recent online abuse and death threats that were sent to referee Kevin Clancy’s house after Celtics 3-2 win over Rangers earlier this month.
Finally, it looks like the penny might be dropping beyond Celtic that there are peculiar refereeing trends when Rangers are concerned.
BOBBY GORDON
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