UEFA must investigate corruption at the heart of Scottish football

In 2005, Robert Hoyzer shook German football to its foundations with the revelation that he had been involved in match-fixing in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Hoyzer had sent off SV Hamburg’s Emil Mpenza and awarded two penalties to Paderborn who had been trailing 2-0 at the time.

Hamburg’s players’ complaints of bias were vindicated.

In 2004, Czech club Synot were fined 15,000 Euros and docked 12 points when the club were found guilty of bribing referees. The crisis worsened when 17 referees and club officials were charged with corruption.

Some of the biggest clubs in football were found guilty of corruption in Italy and punished severely.

Today, Celtic should call upon UEFA to investigate corruption in the Scottish game.

With an SFA Chief Executive who has not even pretended to be impartial, and whose comments, submitted prior to his appointment but which were published afterwards, did much to question his capacity for objectivity, it seems unlikely that any such allegations in the Scottish game will be taken seriously by our authorities.

The SFA decision to respond to charges of sectarian singing at Rangers with “no action” closely followed Smith’s appointment and since then their fans have been guilty of disgusting racism at home and away matches without censure.

However, the performances of Mike McCurry in Rangers matches, notably against Dundee United today, demand special attention.

With Dundee Utd 2-0 down, McCurry failed to award a clear penalty that should also have resulted in a red card for David Weir.

Later in the same game an own goal by Weir was disallowed for offside.

A few moments later, the Rangers player Daniel Cousin received only a yellow card for a head butt.

None of these decisions can be justified in any context. The fact that they all favoured Rangers who are challenging for the SPL demands attention.

If the Italians, Germans and Czechs can acknowledge corruption, why should we suppose that it does not exist in the Scottish game? And if the Scottish authorities will not take action, UEFA must be asked to investigate.

Craig Levein on the match