Brendan Rodgers will meet Ian Maxwell tonight at McDiarmid Park to discuss the crisis in Scottish refereeing.
The summit was discussed at the start of December with Celtic’s last two fixtures of 2018 highlighting the need for transparency with referees immune from any criticism, accountability or demotion.
At Pittodrie on December 26 Willie Collum awarded one very soft penalty, one incredible penalty and refused to send off Niall McGinn for an over the ball lunge at Ryan Christie right in front of the referee.
Three days later at Ibrox John Beaton refused to warn, caution or red card Alfredo Morelos for at least three potential orderings off with social media highlighting a further two incidents involving the Colombian.
No retrospective action was taken for either match.
The Daily Record reports:
We understand Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard along with Hearts boss Craig Levein, who recently copped a two match ban for outspoken criticism of ref Bobby Madden, will attend.
It’s believed only two top-flight gaffers will not be present for a no-holds barred discussion with a host of leading figures in the referees’ department and new SFA compliance officer Clare Whyte.
Rodgers’ relaxed attitude to match officials is regarded as the manager’s major flaw by many Celtic supporters.
So far this season three players have been retrospectively suspended for incidents in matches against Celtic, following the Glasgow derby the SFA are now pushing the excuse that if a referee views an incident they are unable to take retrospective action. Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna was given a two match suspension for an assault on Odsonne Edouard that wasn’t deemed to be a foul by Bobby Madden.