No Fenian Conspiracy - Just a Handball Rule Pundits and Rangers fans failed to read

The IFAB ruling on handballs is five years old. Rangers fans' tantrums aren’t about handballs - it’s about their team spending £60m and still looking like a bunch of losers as Celtic storm ahead.

As Rangers prepare to walk out to what is expected to be a less-than-capacity crowd at Ibrox this afternoon for their League Cup tie against holders St Mirren, another storm is brewing over a refereeing decision in a Celtic game. Much to the angst of Rangers fans - and those Hearts fans still hurting from last season’s “bottle job” - many would rather howl at the moon than support their team through its worst start to the season - winless in four games and knocked out of the Europa League under their great white [Ronseal Lodge Orange] Protestant saviour, Derek McInnes.

Celtic travelled to Tannadice on Saturday to face Dundee United in their League Cup tie, running out 4–0 winners. But there was debate among pundits after the match, echoed by Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin himself, over Celtic’s second goal, scored by new boy Camilo Durán in the 24th minute.

The incident occurred when Kasper Høgh, sliding under challenge, clearly handled the ball in the build-up before Durán finished from close range. VAR reviewed the goal but upheld referee Steven McLean’s on-field decision to allow it, leaving Dundee United incensed and sparking wider discussion about the interpretation of the handball law.

After the match, Goodwin was openly frustrated by the VAR decision to allow Celtic’s second goal, describing it as “extremely frustrating” and calling for “common sense” to prevail in such situations.

However, when there is a rulebook, common sense does not come into the equation -as Goodwin well knows. Before every season, clubs, players, and managers meet with the chief referee to hear about new laws implemented in the game, giving them prior warning before the season kicks off - just as Willie Collum did this year, including speaking to fans groups.

Now, you would be forgiven if you thought this ruling had been implemented over the summer, with players and managers still trying to get their heads around it. Even the Scottish FA’s website highlights an explanation in relation to the Høgh and Durán incident, which was jumped on by pundits and disgruntled, paranoid, conspiracy-theory Rangers fans alike. It states:

“Handball Law 12: The following ‘handball’ situations, even if accidental, will be a free kick – The ball goes into the goal after touching an attacking player’s hand/arm.”

Taken literally, that handball ruling would rightly see Durán’s goal ruled out and a free kick awarded to Dundee United. No one is disputing that. The only problem is that specific ruling was made in August 2019 and has been updated since.

In August 2021, two years after the ruling that pundits like Ewen Cameron and Michael Stewart referenced in their dog-whistle argument, IFAB made a rule change in relation to an “accidental handball in the immediate build-up to a goal”.

IFAB ruled: “If an attacking player’s accidental handball immediately precedes another player scoring, the goal will now be awarded, when last season it was likely to have been ruled out.”

It begs the question - why are we being subjected to pundits on our match coverage who don’t know the rules of the game? Michael Stewart clearly smelled blood and went for the jugular, only to make himself look like a laughing stock as soon as Willie Collum sent an explanation to the Premier Sports studio following the conclusion of the Celtic–Dundee United game. No amount of backtracking and whataboutery over the Falkirk game could hide the smug look being wiped off his face on live TV.

So now that we categorically know the goal was correctly allowed to stand under the current handball regulations - which have been in place for five years already - we can agree that the current handball rulings are complex and open to interpretation. While the rule of law was followed in regard to the Celtic goal, the ruling in the Falkirk game should be looked at further. But there’s no traction around a “Falkirk robbed of a legitimate goal” narrative for the journalists, pundits, and bitter, hurting Rangers and Hearts fans. So they decided to make arses of themselves by complaining, criticising referees, and decrying a “big bad Fenian conspiracy” to award Celtic a goal they duly deserved and scored without breaking any laws.

But Celtic being awarded a goal after the referee followed the rules of the game doesn’t matter to a fanbase like Rangers Football Club - a club whose former incarnation was liquidated after cheating Scottish football over an 11-year period by tax-dodging and buying players. Former Ibrox supremo David Murray admitted they would not have realistically been able to afford them without the tax dodge and side letters winning titles and trophies they really should have been stripped of.

So it makes perfect sense that Rangers, and latterly Hearts fans, complain about a handball or two while ignoring the greatest period of match-fixing in the history of Scottish football.

However, we all know the true reasons behind their claims of conspiracies and referees in favour of Celtic. They watched their club play the first four games of the season without a win and have surrendered the title already. They have seen Celtic score 10 goals and concede just once in their first three games of the season - and they can’t handle Celtic continuing to dominate the Scottish game without the Rangers’ strategy of tax dodges, side letters, and favourable bank loans from the owner’s best pal inside the Bank of Scotland.

If Rangers can’t beat Celtic to the title, they claim that Celtic cheated, that everyone was against Rangers and if that doesn’t gain traction, they then use the pain and suffering of abused children for their own agendas - while ignoring the crimes of their coaching staff and cover-ups by their own board and management teams.

So as Rangers take to the field at 4pm on Sunday, hopefully their fans will now come to terms with a law that was passed five years ago, realise that there is no “big bad Fenian conspiracy”, and give their team all the support they desperately need at this moment in time.

Because after spending £60 million on 28 players in the space of one year, sitting five points behind league leaders Celtic in ninth place, they need all the help they can get.