I don't buy these Celtic conspiracies but this all smacks of putting Brendan Rodgers in his place – Hugh Keevins

The business of alleging the game’s governing bodies orchestrate matters to sabotage Celtic is a nonsense.

The club’s prolonged run of success, while annexing 11 of the last 12 titles, tells you any conspiracy theories suffer from a distinct drawback. The total absence of any substantive proof. Class, and not connivance, has been the recurring theme. Which is why Brendan Rodgers goes into today’s game against Rangers having lost just one Old Firm derby out of 15 played.

Rather than play hunt the conspiracy, the Celtic support need to confront the reality. At one time this season they had an eight-point lead over their greatest rivals. A manager-led resurgence at Rangers following the arrival of Philippe Clement has coincided with the erosion of that gap and exposed a level of negligence from Celtic. But now Celtic fans have been given a get-out clause while they watch today’s game on television.

The appointment of John Beaton as the referee at Ibrox is insensitive at best and a gratuitous distraction. The occasion has an element of Brendan’s Last Stand about it since a win for Rangers would put them two points clear of his team with a game in hand. Today’s match needed no artificial stimuli, such as the appointment of a match official who has, in the eyes of the Celtic support, cornered the market in innuendo. Rodgers called Beaton incompetent when Celtic lost to Hearts on March 3 and served a one-match touchline ban for expressing himself too explicitly for the SFA’s liking.

The decision to appoint the same referee to this high-octane game smacks of the authorities putting Rodgers in his place. I wrote here last week the only way matters could have been made worse relative to fuelling the conspiracy theorists was