Rangers setting dangerous precedent with unnecessary penalty pile on and I know their real motivation - Chris Sutton

People can make their own mind up on what Rangers’ motivation was for sparking a game of statement tennis with the SFA.

For me it was a blame game, a deflection tactic, after they fell short in another big match against Celtic. It’s blame Willie Collum, blame everyone else and take very little responsibility over the things that they can control. The decision not to award Rangers a penalty was the correct decision however they got to it and the handball by Alistair Johnston was totally irrelevant.

What is the merit in having a pointless argument over was it or was it not handball? Rangers were not wronged so what are they moaning about? It’s been a strange old week and some may want to bring greater scrutiny on how it’s taken the best part of two years for Rangers to have a Premiership penalty awarded against them but we didn’t see any statements or bafflement on that astonishing stat.

What Rangers’ statement has brought is a pile-on. And it’s all so unnecessary. It stirs the pot and puts more pressure on referees going forward.

This route they’re going down by asking for Willie Collum not to be involved in any of their games is none of their business. And it’s a very dangerous precedent to set.

What would be the protocol for that? Are we then going to scrutinise referees’ performances over time and the mistakes they’ve made or a particular referee’s past?

We know what Scotland is like and that’s a can of worms that should never be opened. Collum got a subjective call wrong and you could question the competency there. There are also things that can be improved with VAR, I think we all agree that.

But you cannot be asking for an official to be removed from your games for getting a subjective decision wrong. It’s just not