Charlie Richmond believes that younger referees are becoming disillusioned with the preferential treatment given to the SFA elite whistlers.
Once a referee is accepted onto the FIFA list he is almost assured of getting top fixtures regardless of how he is performing.
Emerging referees, who’ve worked their way through the various ranks, are finding the route to the top matches blocked by officials making high profile errors.
Chief culprit is Andrew Dallas who has been fast tracked through the system. Dallas appeared on the FIFA list without taking charge of a single match involving five times Scottish champions Celtic.
The Lanarkshire based official recently booked Malaury Martin of Hearts when Louis Moult of Motherwell was tripped by a team-mate.
The following week Dallas was given another live television match, Sevco v Morton in the Scottish Cup.
After criticising John Beaton’s performance in the Sevco v Hamilton match Richmond wrote in the Daily Record: “Finally I was speaking to a couple of referees during the week and some of the officials are not happy with the way that some are getting away with things and others aren’t.
“Observers are contacting the SFA with regards to certain officials and querying all sorts of incidents.
“The incident of mistaken identity when Hearts player Malaury Martin was booked by Andrew Dallas after the Motherwell player had clipped his own teammates heels at Fir Park is a case in point.
“Had that been a younger referee in charge of his first Premiership game then he would have been slated for not being good enough at his job.
“I can tell you that there is a wee bit of unrest in the refereeing fraternity because some are getting away with things that others may not be.”
Richmond expects Bobby Madden to be awarded Sunday’s match between Celtic and Sevco.