Quinn salutes Reid impact at Celtic
Former Celtic chairman Brian Quinn has paid tribute to his outgoing successor, John Reid, who will step down from his post at the club’s annual general meeting later this year.
Former British Home Secretary and Defence Secretary Reid, who was appointed to his Celtic role in 2007, will hand over the reins to Ian Bankier, a businessman in the whisky industry.
“John has provided the leadership you’d expect from an ex-Cabinet minister,” Quinn told BBC Scotland.
“He has kept the ship straight. There has been a lot of turbulence both on the field and off the field.
“John did it his way – I’ve no fault to find with him.”
Reid was highly critical of the standard of refereeing in Scotland last season.
At Celtic’s annual general meeting last year he said “bold, radical action” should be taken against “stories of lies, conspiracies and cover-ups” within Scottish football.
That followed the controversy at Tannadice in October when referee Dougie McDonald admitted to lying to Celtic manager Neil Lennon about how he had come to rescind a penalty award for the Hoops in a Clydesdale Bank Premier League game against Dundee United.
“We’re not asking for special treatment, but neither will we be treated as less than anyone else,” Reid had added. “Those days are gone.”
Quinn, though, believes any suggestion of Scottish referees being biased are wide of the mark.
Referring to his seven and a half years in the post, he said: “I would say my main criticism of the refereeing situation was competence rather than bias.
“The demands on referees have increased over time but, comparing it with other leagues that I see, I don’t think the quality of referees in Scotland was as high as it should have been in my time.
“I still come up for a number of Celtic games and I see games south of the border too.
“I think strenuous efforts are being made to improve the quality of referees but that is where the emphasis should fall – on the competence of referees and, in particular, assistant referees.”
Quinn added: “Did I think there were mistakes made? Yes, of course, but there are mistakes made in every walk of life.
“The question is, are the mistakes greater than in other fields? It is very hard to find a comparison – I don’t watch rugby or cricket.
“But, on the whole, bias was not a huge issue for Celtic.”
