Disgraced Stephen Brown refereed two Celtic Reserve League matches last season despite the SFA being aware of his sectarian social media posts including abuse aimed at Neil Lennon.
Last Saturday a report in the Daily Mail revealed that Brown had ‘retired’ from refereeing despite being promoted onto the Grade One list which would have allowed him to take charge of SPFL Premiership matches.
The Facebook posts dated back to 2010 but didn’t prevent him from climbing the ladder through the SFA working up from Amateur and Junior matches through to Youth and Academy fixtures into the senior game.
The Daily Mail reported:
A top Scots referee has stepped down over historic offensive Facebook messages concerning Celtic and their manager Neil Lennon and apologised for his actions.
Stephen Brown, 35, posted a series of unsavoury sectarian, discriminatory and homophobic social media posts. The messages, seen by Sportsmail and now deleted, date back to 2010.
Celtic lost 3-0 away to Hamilton in August then drew 2-2 with Hibs in December. Of 17 Reserve League matches Brown refereed two with Graham Grainger in charge of five fixtures.
It seems that in 2014 the offensive messages came to light and resulted in a censure from ‘an independent panel’ which effectively amounts to a warning not to be silly and get caught out.
It’s unclear if the independent panel was set up by the SFA or his local Refereeing Association.
Over the next five years SFA Refereeing chief John Fleming continued to promote Brown through the ranks, taking charge of lower division fixtures last season in the SPFL.
It appears that the prospect of Brown being in charge of top flight fixtures next season caused alarm bells to go off inside Hampden with the diplomatic decision taken for the 35-year-old to step down.
