There we have it, fellow Celts.

Willie Collum has confirmed that Celtic should have been awarded a penalty against Motherwell at Fir Park.

Another mistake acknowledged, another injustice recognised, and another opportunity for Scottish football to pat itself on the back for being wonderfully transparent after the damage has already been done.

How marvellous. We can all sleep better tonight knowing Celtic were right all along. Except, of course, we cannot turn back the clock, and that is precisely the problem.

I wrote at the time that Celtic should have pursued the decision because I believed it was too important simply to shrug our shoulders and move on. In fact, I argued that the best time to challenge it was immediately after a victory.

Why? Because when Celtic win, we can make the point without giving anybody the opportunity to dismiss our complaints as sour grapes following a defeat.

It is called being proactive, and I would have thought a club of Celtic’s stature could manage it. Yet here we are with confirmation arriving after the fact. Collum has acknowledged the mistake, but what does that actually achieve for Celtic?

Does it restore anything we might have lost? Does it change the result? Does it send a clear message that significant officiating mistakes have consequences?

Not really. And as far as I am concerned, that is the issue. I am not demanding that referees never make mistakes. Football is a fast-moving game and officials are human beings. They are going to get decisions wrong from time to time.

I understand that perfectly well, and I am capable of accepting an honest mistake.

What I refuse to accept is a system where acknowledging the mistake appears to be the end of the matter. If a referee makes a significant error, what happens next?

Is the performance reviewed properly? Is the official told where the mistake occurred? Are standards measured over time? Are there meaningful consequences where the same failures keep happening?

And, perhaps most importantly, what assurance do supporters have that lessons are actually being learned? I would like answers to those questions rather than another carefully worded admission which everybody can conveniently forget about a week later.

Because Celtic cannot afford to collect apologies like football cards. We need fair decisions on the pitch when they actually matter.

And let us not pretend these decisions are inconsequential.

A penalty can change the course of a match. A match can influence a title race. A title race can affect access to European football and all the financial consequences which come with it. One decision can have consequences which travel far beyond the 90 minutes in which it was made.

So, when Collum confirms that Celtic should have received a penalty against Motherwell, I want to know what happens next.

Who is accountable for the mistake? What coaching follows from it? What measures are taken to prevent the same thing happening again?

And why should supporters be expected to regard an admission of error as sufficient?

Perhaps somebody at Celtic Park could explain that to us.

Because this is where the club itself comes into the argument.

Then there was the Celta Vigo game. Callum Osmand was pushed as he drove towards the penalty area, and the incident was waved away.

The important correction here is that the foul was just outside the box, so this was not a penalty incident.

But that does not make the decision any less baffling.

From where I was watching, it looked like an obvious foul in a dangerous position. Martin O’Neill thought so too. Yet Celtic got nothing.

And again, I am not going to pretend every controversial decision proves deliberate wrongdoing. There is a huge difference between an official making a poor decision and claiming something more sinister, and I am not going to manufacture accusations simply because I am furious about another call going against Celtic.

But that does not mean we should stop asking difficult questions about standards, consistency and accountability. If a referee can watch a player being pushed as he attacks the edge of the penalty area and decide there is no foul, supporters are entitled to ask why.

If the decision was wrong, say so. If the referee’s performance fell below the required standard, assess it properly. And if the decision was correct, explain the reasoning.

Give people something more substantial than silence followed by the next fixture.

Surely that is not an unreasonable expectation in a professional sport which demands so much money, emotion and commitment from supporters?

Or are refereeing decisions effectively beyond meaningful scrutiny until somebody at the top decides to offer a retrospective explanation?

That is what frustrates me most about this. The Motherwell incident did not happen in some vacuum. Celtic supporters have watched controversial decisions accumulate over the years, and every time another one arrives we are expected to discuss it, argue about it and eventually move on.

Meanwhile, the consequences remain.

I want Celtic to behave like a club which expects the highest standards, not one which meekly accepts whatever explanation is offered once the moment has passed.

If a referee makes a serious mistake, there should be a proper review.

If that mistake demonstrates a failure to meet professional standards, there should be proportionate consequences.

If mistakes are repeated, the response should become more serious.

And if the system cannot demonstrate that it is correcting its failures, then supporters are entitled to question the system itself.

That is accountability. It is about recognising the responsibility attached to the job.

Players can be dropped. Managers can lose their jobs. Coaches are judged on results. Clubs pay dearly for bad recruitment and poor decisions.

Yet when a refereeing error has potentially serious consequences, we often seem to arrive at the same comfortable conclusion.

Mistakes happen. Everybody move on. How convenient.

Imagine telling a Celtic player that his place in the team was guaranteed no matter how many mistakes he made because he could simply apologise afterwards.

Imagine telling a manager that a string of poor performances would carry no consequences.

Nobody would regard that as remotely acceptable.

So why should professional refereeing operate according to a completely different principle?

I am not calling for officials to be publicly humiliated or punished for every marginal decision.

I am asking for a robust system which distinguishes between unavoidable mistakes and repeated failures to meet the required standard.

That is not too much to ask.

What I want more than that, though, is for our club to stand tall and fight for us on this stuff when it matters.

That is surely not too much to ask either.

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