Don Robertson has been promoted onto the elite UEFA list of officials by the SFA.
In April Robertson hit the headlines when he awarded Ross County a late penalty against Celtic when Alex Schalk took a ridiculous dive with Erik Sviatchenko more than a foot away from the cheat.
Robertson had a perfect view of the incident and had no hesitation in awarding a penalty without the need to consult his assistant who was at the same side of the pitch.
Brendan Rodgers had watched his side suffer a number of bizarre decisions around the same time and marched onto the pitch to confront Robertson at the final whistle.
Reflecting on the incident a few days afterwards the Celtic boss said: “Everyone has seen the decision last weekend and as a referee, especially if you’re trying to get yourself promoted in the game, you have to get that right but we have to try and help the referees and try to improve the standard.
“I had a call from John Fleming, which I really appreciated and respected – because he didn’t have to.
“Don Robertson doesn’t have to ring me, he doesn’t have to apologise to me. John did that.
“All I would say to Don Robertson is, ‘Make sure you apologise to Erik Sviatchenko’, because it wasn’t a penalty but I’m sure he will learn from it.”
After the match at Dingwall the SFA only awarded Robertson one post split Premiership fixture- the St Johnstone v Hearts fixture out of the way of television cameras.
It seems that regardless of how a referee performs in matches that once he is in favour with Fleming his pathway to the top is assured.
Even by the standards of the season recently finished Robertson’s mistake stood out.
Rather than delay his promotion for a season the SFA have effectively laughed in the faces of Rodgers and Sviatchenko with their decision to put Robertson on the UEFA list which will provide frequent European travel and more high profile domestic matches.
Robertson’s promotion sends a clear message to all referees that any type of high profile error won’t effect their promotion prospects.
Two months earlier the blundering referee only issued a yellow card to Ryan Bowman after a career threatening attack on Kieran Tierney’s knee.
Ross County accepted the two match ban for Schalk with Brown having his red card downgraded to a yellow.