No help from Poles or Portuguese in refs´ strike

The row over the referees’ strike in Scottish football took another twist on Friday when Portuguese officials joined their Polish counterparts in performing an about-turn after being drafted in to officiate games this weekend.

In the face of the unprecedented strike, called by referees to protest what they see as undeserved and over-the-top criticism of their performances by players and managers, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) has turned to foreign officials to save the league programme.

Despite the recent pull-outs, the SFA maintained late Friday that all the weekend’s six Scottish Premier League matches would go ahead as scheduled.

The Polish Football Federation had indicated on Thursday that they were planning on sending match officials, with Israel also confirmed and countries such as Portugal and Malta also reportedly co-operating with the SFA.

However, as top-level refs in Scotland refused to back down on their plans to strike on Saturday and Sunday, the Poles claimed to have other commitments.

In a statement on Scottish Television’s website, www.stv.tv, a spokesperson for the Polish FA confirmed: “We will not be sending our referees to Scotland tomorrow because they are needed for our domestic games.

“We did confirm to the SFA yesterday that we would be sending a team of 12 officials but that is no longer the case.”

Later, Portuguese FA officials confirmed that two referees who had set off on Friday morning — and were set to officiate Hibernian v St Johnstone on Saturday and Motherwell v Hearts on Sunday — had left Scotland soon after arriving.

A Motherwell spokesman said: “Motherwell Football Club can confirm that Portuguese officials scheduled to take charge of our game on Sunday have gone home to Portugal.

“The club have been given assurances by the SFA that the game will still go ahead.”

All Premier League games have been allocated match officials with one SFL lower-division match receiving the services of a referee and assistant referees.

The Alba Cup Final and three Scottish Cup replays have also been allocated match officials.

It was not immediately clear, however, how the Polish and Portuguese about-turns would affect the scheduled games.

Alain Hamer, of Luxembourg, is due to referee both Old Firm teams’ respective games.

Hamer will take charge of Celtic’s clash against Inverness on Saturday. He and his two assistants from Luxembourg will then cover Rangers’ trip to Dundee United on Sunday.

The participation of two three-man Israeli teams of officials has been placed under doubt, however, after Yariv Teper, head of the Israeli referees’ union, admitted Thursday that he had not been aware of the reasons behind the SFA’s appeal for help.

Motherwell manager Craig Brown, meanwhile told the Scottish referees to “grow up” and stop embarrassing the national game.

The former Scotland manager said he failed to understand why the country’s top flight referees had voted for strike action without airing their concerns with any other group.

“I think the referees association has embarrassed football in Scotland by taking this action because surely there another five agencies they should have dealt with before going on strike,” he said.

“They should speak to the managers’ union, Alex Smith, you will not get a more decent sensible guy.

“Speak to the players’ union if they have a problem with players. Speak to the Scottish Football League, the SPL and the SFA.

“Having had the five agencies round the table and still feeling aggrieved, then go on strike.

“If they have issues with the press, they should speak to the president of the press association.

“Why do this without sitting round the table in a mature, sensible manner?”