What Celtic had to say about League Cup Final referee John Beaton

John Beaton will have the honour of refereeing the League Cup Final at Hampden tomorrow- almost three years after his most notorious performance.

The Lanarkshire based referee first came to the fore in 2014 when he allowed Bilel Mohsni to punch the ball into the net along with the Albion Rovers goalkeeper to give Ally McCoist’s two-year-old club a replay against Albion Rovers. From then on his progress through the ranks was assured.

John Beaton, Rangers fan and regular Crown Bar Loyal punter handed the Cup Final to referee by the @ScottishFA… nothing to see here… no questions to be asked… ?? pic.twitter.com/8mUaP7gL8K

— ? Gastro Celtic ? (@Gastro_Celtic) December 7, 2021

At Ibrox in December 2018 Beaton managed to condense a season worth of honest mistakes into 90 minutes with Alfredo Morelos at the centre of most of the incidents.

Early on he kicked out at Scott Brown, Beaton awarded a free kick. Feeling that he was invisible Morelos punched out at Ryan Christie’s genitals, Beaton ignored it then stood back admiring at the Columbian deliberately stepped on Tony Ralston’s back. All went unpunished by Beaton and the SFA Compliance Officer who reviewed the match.

After five days of constant complaints from Celtic fans on social media Peter Lawwell reluctantly reached for the statement template to take some heat out of the issue:

Celtic Football Club is surprised that there will be no disciplinary action taken by the Scottish FA regarding the incidents during the match on December 29, which have been widely addressed in the media.

It is reported that no action was taken because the match referee saw all of the incidents in question.

Given that the referee took no action at the time, this tends to suggest that such conduct, which in one instance led to a Celtic player, Anthony Ralston, being injured, is acceptable in Scottish football. That cannot be right.

On the day, Celtic did not play well enough to win the match, something we accept. However, this issue goes beyond the result of the match.

Celtic is not the only club this season to raise concerns regarding the standard of officiating at matches in Scotland, concerns which have also been shared by many commentators on the game.

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.

Typically there wasn’t a word of follow up from Celtic, no explanation for that performance by Beaton who continued to get the most lucrative fixtures which are still dominated by Lanarkshire officials groomed by Hugh Dallas.

In November 2019 I asked Lawwell about that statement at the Celtic AGM, the rest of the year he prefers to hide. It seems that over tea and biscuits all was resolved on the quiet with  his mate Maxwell at the SFA.

The former Celtic CEO was probably reminded of the fingerprints all over the 2012 Five Way Agreement and his devotion to the O** F*** business model and easy bonuses.