THERE are few things in Scottish football that seemingly unites clubs of all colours and supporters of all allegiances.

But the belief that our referees are rotten, and that they are supposedly biased against your manager, your player or your team, is a feeling that everyone from League Two to the Premiership will have had at some point.

It’s not true, though. Scottish whistlers aren’t prejudiced, they just aren’t very good at what they do week in week out, and get paid handsomely for.

On professional pitches up and down the country every weekend, the man in the middle will take home more than the keeper that made a match-winning save or the striker that clinched the victory for his side.

But Scottish football doesn’t get value for money because the men, and women, that control the game or patrol the touchline aren’t of a high enough standard and mistakes, and bad ones, are made too regularly.

Referees can often become an easy target for players or managers when a game doesn’t go their way and they are looking for someone to vent at, searching for figure to blame.

Having a pop at someone that is not allowed a right of reply by their employers is the easy way at times and it feeds into the fans’ mindset that so and so has it in for them.

But there are occasions when decisions have to be called out and when questions have to be asked and Rangers’ statement on Thursday evening did just that.

It was Willie Collum that was the focus of their anger on this occasion but the points were valid regardless of who the official had been. Every club could probably have made a similar public proclamation at some stage of the season already, and we are not even at the halfway point yet.

Amid their obvious, and well founded, bemusement at the baffling decision to send Daniel Candieas off against St Mirren last Saturday, there was anger at the Scottish FA’s inability to overturn the yellow card that ultimately ruled him out of the game with Motherwell at Ibrox.

There is no common sense clause in the Hampden rulebook and there is no mechanism to do the right thing, even when it would seem so simple to achieve.

And that is where the line which states ‘Rangers shall now seek a fundamental review of the rules relating to red cards which result from two bookings of a player in a game’ comes in. If anything is achieved by this farcical decision, it could be a change for the better.

There is often a sense of playing to the galleries when clubs launch attacks on the SFA or their sixth floor counterparts at the SPFL. They appease their fans, but there are no actions to back-up their words.

Our game is run by the clubs, it is they who have the real power, and there are ample opportunities at board meetings and AGMs for concerns to be raised and rules to be changed. If you are that unhappy, then do something about it.

Rangers won’t let the issue lie here and, having come out as strongly last week, they must now take it as far as they can.

An in-depth look at refereeing standards and disciplinary procedures would be no bad thing and chairmen, and fans, should be lending their support to any move that would ultimately benefit everyone in Scottish football.

Why don’t we make a group of our whistlers full-time and professional, like they are south of the border? Or how about we introduce VAR in the Premiership?

Increasing the basic levels of competency of our officials would be no bad thing. And any system which gives them the opportunity to make more correct calls should be embraced.

But let’s see how many chairmen are willing to foot bill, how many are prepared to give up a slice of their television cash or their prize money to put towards mechanisms that would help our officials and undoubtedly raise standards.

If Scottish football united behind that cause, then we might actually get somewhere when it comes to solving our referee issues.