Bobby Madden will referee Sunday’s Celtic v Aberdeen match meaning that he will be in charge of back-to-back matches involving Derek McInnes’ side.
The FIFA listed official was the man in the middle for Aberdeen’s 4-1 win over Motherwell last Saturday at Pittodrie during which Keith Lasley was sent off with Shane Logan, Kenny McLean and Graeme Shinnie of the home side all booked.
With Steven McLean, Andrew Dallas, Nick Walsh and Greg Aitken in charge of Premiership matches it would have seemed straightforward to put one of those referees in charge of the Celtic fixture rather than put Madden in charge of the Dons for the second match running. Willie Collum, John Beaton and Stephen Finnie are on fourth official duty at the weekend with the lower league season’s all completed.
The Aberdeen v Motherwell match was largely incident free until Lasley was red carded with five minutes left to play.
Announcing their decision to appeal that decision Motherwell stated: “Motherwell Football Club can confirm that it has today (Tuesday) formally submitted an appeal to the Scottish FA in relation to Keith Lasley’s red card during Saturday’s SPFL Premiership match against Aberdeen.
“The skipper was shown a straight red card by the match official in the closing stages after being accused of serious foul play in a clash with Dons player Kenny McLean.
“Bobby Madden, who had a clear view from just yards away, appeared to initially deem the tackle a bookable offence and had the yellow card in his hand, but changed his mind, presumably on the advice of another official.
“The club strongly believes this to be a case of wrongful dismissal and has therefore submitted an appeal this afternoon. The Scottish FA have notified the club the hearing will take place on Thursday, May 12.”
Mark McGhee added: “Having watched it back several times, I thought it was more of a tired, miss-timed tackle, rather than one that was reckless, violent or with intent to hurt the opponent.
“There was another tackle earlier in the game that was fairly similar in many ways, that resulted in a booking, which is why I was surprised at the red card. Obviously Bobby, who I thought had a good game overall, had the yellow in his hand and he’s changed his mind, which he’s perfectly entitled to do, but I think his initial gut reaction to the challenge was the correct one.”
