McVicar, Murphy and the integrity of Walter Smith

He is, according to all who have managed his reputation in the media, a “prince among men”. I refer, of course to the R-word manager, Walter Smith.

A “disciplinarian” who oversaw the most unruly bunch of thugs and boozers in Scottish football during his first stint in Scotland – the flute-players, the car vandals, the kebab shop kids and the terrorist associates who turned out in royal blue in the name of queen and country. It was, as he infamously put it, all part of the “Protestant superiority complex at Ibrox”.

Scarcely has a word of criticism been written of Smith by the “legitimate” media; those whose opportunities to share the fruits of David Murray's wine cellar allegedly add a weight to their opinions that their intellectual fortitude can never hope to support.

Perhaps most notably, Smith has indulged in specific abuse of officials that has yet to draw comment from the “sensible” media, by which we mean the Jacksons and Broadfoots of the world.

Nor has the SFA's “referee's chief” Donald McVicar defended match officials against the aggressive tirades and distasteful innuendo perpetrated by Sir Walter-in-Waiting.

When he specifically named linesman Tom Murphy, recalling a disputed decision in a match his team played with Celtic, the SFA decided there was “no case to answer”.

What was not reported in the established media was that this followed a written apology from Smith to Murphy, without which the authorities could scarcely have failed to take official action. The exact content of the letter can be known only to Smith and Murphy but we might assume that any such letter of atonement contained some form of assurance that further abuse would not be directed at the assistant referee.

And Smith had good reason to be grateful to Murphy. At half-time at in the same game at Celtic Park last season, his then captain (since abandoned) directed such venom at Murphy that an officer from Strathclyde Police offered to intervene. Murphy's response was to request that no action be taken, pleading on Ferguson's behalf that he was “just upset”.

Was this incident reported by the Ibrox in-house tabloid, the Daily Record? Were the paid hacks who masquerade under the title of journalists unaware of the events? We must draw our own conclusions.

Perhaps it is too much to stomach that the manager of the vanguard of Scottish bigotry should have had to cow-tow to a man named Murphy, a man who had already spared his club the shame of yet more police action.

Perhaps, also, it is too much for Smith to be a man of his word and to refrain from intensifying the invective against an official whose errors have been paltry in comparison to, let's say, Mike McCurry.

And in all this there is a gap usually filled by the gargantuan mouth of McVicar. When Iain Brines was perceived to have made errors that disadvantaged Rangers, McVicar condemned the state of refereeing before declining to re-list Brines as on the FIFA list. He was then, on Saturday, given an opportunity to make amends, to “even the score”, which he was quick to take. Might Brines be restored to the FIFA list for 2010?

Murphy's chance is to be offered this week. Assured of 90 minutes of abuse that has been at least tacitly endorsed by Smith, what chance is there of his flagging for a major decision for Celtic as the spittle and sectarian abuse fly?

How many dives will Nacho Novo, Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty or Kris Boyd need to make before their first penalty? With the intensive scrutiny and lack of support being offered to Murphy, you can expect that to be within the first three.

Of course, some might expect that Celtic could likewise expect to benefit from refereeing redress in the coming weeks. But, then, the officials are impartial.










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