John Beaton will referee the League Cup Final between Celtic and Hibs at Hampden on Sunday December 19.
Just short of three years ago Celtic issued a statement following a controversial Glasgow derby handled by Beaton at Ibrox:
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.
In the meantime, we have requested a meeting with Scottish FA Chief Executive, Ian Maxwell, and the Association’s Head of Refereeing.
Celtic made no further comment on that issue with Beaton continuing to handle high profile matches. The SFA didn’t respond in public to the Celtic statement.
In his most recent controversy Beaton gave a late penalty against Ryan Porteous with the Hibs defender adamant that he didn’t commit a foul on Ryan Kent. In October Stephen Glass was highly critical of a penalty given against Aberdeen by Beaton at Ibrox.
While Bobby Madden has refereed four of Celtic’s 15 SPFL Premiership matches this season Beaton has still to referee a Premiership fixture involving Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Back in August he refereed Celtic’s 3-2 win over Hearts in the League Cup.
Greg Aitken will be the fourth official at Hampden suggesting that he is next in line to join the elite getting the high-profile fixtures.
Ryan Porteous penalty call was wrong – BUT I’d be claiming for it too, says Hibs boss Jack Rosshttps://t.co/EKjsBxABOl pic.twitter.com/EFvAysAv2x
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) December 2, 2021
? Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass on the goals they conceded in their 2-2 draw against Rangers:
“We’ve been undone by a free-kick that doesn’t look like a free-kick and a penalty that doesn’t look like a penalty”. pic.twitter.com/HNrhpryK72
— Andrew Maclean (@AndrewMaclean_) October 27, 2021
