Dallas quits as Scotland´s top ref – report

The embattled Scottish Football Association is facing further crisis after reports late Friday claimed top refereeing official Hugh Dallas had resigned from his post as the SFA’s head of referee development.

The SFA is currently negotiating a widespread referees strike, which has forced officials to call in reinforcements from around Europe in order to maintain this weekend’s league programmes.

While those efforts have proved a mitigated success — some referees have agreed to help while others, including those from Poland and Portugal, performed late about-turns — news of Dallas’s resignation has not come as a total surprise.

In midweek the Catholic Church called for the SFA to sack Dallas, a former World Cup regeree, if it was proved he passed on a “tasteless message” relating to the Pope’s visit to Scotland in September.

On Thursday SFA chief executive Stewart Regan refused to comment on Dallas’s future, but reports said Friday that Regan has claimed that Dallas has stepped down.

Regan launched an inquiry earlier this month after reports of the alleged email surfaced and he had little to say when questioned Thursday over rumours Dallas was set to depart from the SFA.

Regan acted after reports claimed a photograph relating to the Pope’s visit had been passed on via official SFA emails.

BBC Scotland said the photograph showed a school crossing sign with a silhouette of an adult holding a child’s hand and the word “Caution”. Beneath the sign, added text makes reference to the Pope’s visit.

The SFA chief executive said in a statement on November 10: “I can confirm I have looked into the circulation of the email reported in the media at the weekend.

“Let me state categorically that I do not condone the transmission of any email content that might cause offence to anyone.

“I have spoken with staff and the matter will now be dealt with internally, in line with the Scottish FA’s information systems acceptable use policy.”

However, days after Scotland’s category one referees announced a weekend of strike action — in protest at what they perceive is unjust criticism and pressure from teams, managers and fans — the director of the Catholic media office, Peter Kearney, wrote to Regan demanding swift action.

Kearney wrote: “I am writing to you to express my concern at an allegation made recently against a senior official of the SFA, Mr Hugh Dallas, the head of referee development.

“He has been accused of sending an email from his SFA email account on the day of the Pope’s visit to Scotland, which was totally unprofessional, gratuitously insulting to the Pope, deeply offensive to the Catholic community of Scotland, and an incitement to anti-Catholic sectarianism.”

Kearney asked that the results of the internal investigation be made public and if the allegations are proven Dallas be “removed from his post”.

Regan backed Dallas earlier in November after the former World Cup referee categorically refuted allegations he had bullied former assistant referee Steven Craven.

Craven accused Dallas after quitting the profession following his involvement in Dougie McDonald’s decision to rescind a penalty awarded to Celtic during their victory over Dundee United last month, a decision which sparked much of the controversy that led to the referees’ strike.

That incident is believed to have sparked a chain of events which prompted the referee’s decision to strike.