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Referee apologises to Gerrard as SFA ignore Celtic request over Beaton

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Steven McLean has apologised to Steven Gerrard over a free kick he failed to award during the 1-1 draw with Hibs on Friday, from the incident Florian Kamberi scored for the Edinburgh side.

SunSport can reveal the Ibrox gaffer went to see McLean at Easter Road and ask for an explanation with the whistler vowing to study the TV footage.

Having done so, McLean contacted Gerrard to admit he got it wrong.

Refs’ chief John Fleming is also believed to have been critical of McLean and assistants, Graham Chambers and Stuart Stevenson.

McLean has yet to make any comment, explanation or apology for missing Josh Meekings’ handball against Leigh Griffiths during Celtic’s 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat from Inverness Caley Thistle.

Similarly Celtic are still waiting for any explanation on John Beaton’s failure to protect their players during the December Glasgow derby at Ibrox.

During that match Scott Brown, Ryan Christie and Tony Ralston were all attacked by Alfredo Morelos with the Colombian going unpunished by the match referee. The SFA also chose not to make any retrospective punishment.

Six days after the match Celtic stated: “In order to fully understand what is going on, Celtic, our supporters, Scottish clubs and the general Scottish football public need transparency in these matters, and we therefore call on the Scottish FA to allow the referee, John Beaton, to explain these decisions publicly as well as any match officials involved in other similar circumstances.”

Beaton has continued to be appointed for top Scottish Cup and Premiership fixtures but hasn’t been given any matches involving either of the Glasgow clubs.

At the start of November the club from Ibrox made a statement claiming that referee Willie Collum had underlying issues. Although they were fined £6,000 for that comment Collum hasn’t been in charge of any of their fixtures since, in contrast Celtic have had Collum in charge of three matches of their last 14 matches.

Later this morning the SFA will announce the referees for this weekend’s matches with Celtic travelling to Dundee on Sunday.

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