FIFA Vice president, Jim Boyce, has said that it was ridiculous to claim that not one of the six officials at Hampden actually managed to see the Josh Meekins hand-ball. This is an opinion which is shared by many, and the TV footage and stills suggest that they really must have seen it. It was not subtle, it was a blatant ‘hand in the air’ handball. A candidate for ‘Save of the Season’.
If they did see it, and that is by far the most likely scenario, then the referee made an error by not enforcing the rules of the game.
So, if it was an error, which type of error?
A knowledge-based error, in this instance, is when they did not recognise the incident to be a penalty. I don’t think I have heard anyone make this case that it wasn’t a penalty (hand to ball AND arm in an unnatural position). Indeed if it was this type of error, ‘The Hampden Six’ would have to be removed from duties, and the Head of refereeing at the SFA would have to follow them too, because they would be declaring that they do not know the rules. To be fair, there has been an admission that it was a penalty. No one (sane) is denying it.
A skill-based error? So having used his knowledge to identify, with the help of his team, that it was a penalty, did Mr McLean have the skill to blow his whistle and award a penalty. We have plenty of evidence to demonstrate that McLean knows how to blow his whistle, so that is sorted too.
That leaves a rule-based error, which is when we break the rules. We break rules everyday: speed-related driving, faking injury and so on. If this is what happened on Sunday, then the discussion needs to be about why the referee broke the rules.
A rule-based error would be the wrong answer for the SFA, opposition fans and many in the media, so that is why the SFA claim that no one saw it.
But we know, as does Jim Boyce, that this is ridiculous. So the debate is about Celtic writing a letter.
