Blundering referee Steven McLean showed two yellow cards to Sean Mackie but allowed the Raith Rovers defender to stay on the park as Celtic enjoyed a 4-0 Scottish Cup victory.
In the 80th minute Mackie came off the bench for Kyle Benedictus and picked up a booking three minutes later for a brutal lunge at Daizen Maeda.
Four minutes later the substitute raised his arm in the penalty box to block a shot from Jota. Referee McLean pointed to the penalty spot and raised his yellow card without taking any further action against Mackie.
Yellow card confusion at Celtic Park! ?
Celtic were awarded a penalty for a handball by Sean Mackie, who was already booked, but the yellow card seems to have gone to Ross Matthews, who didn’t handle the ball ? pic.twitter.com/6hv3ZlmocP
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) February 13, 2022
Michael Stewart and Rory Hamilton immediately spotted the issue but none of the assistants or the fourth officials contacted McLean as Nir Bitton tapped in the rebound from his penalty.
Before and after showing the yellow card McLean indicated that it was for raising an arm to the ball.
Highlighting the issue of Mackie staying on the park the commentary team were relayed information from the fourth official claiming that the second yellow card had been shown to Ross Matthews who was in the penalty area but not involved in the penalty incident.
Today was McLean’s first Celtic match of the season, in 2015 he refereed the Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle, a year later he took charge of the Scottish Cup Final.
Standard refereeing decision in Scotland
— Conor O’Neill (@McLovinit92) February 13, 2022
Steven McLean writing a new chapter in the book of inept Scottish refereeing today.
— Andrew (@Hullbhoy) February 13, 2022
GOAL! Celtic 4 Raith 0
Steven McLean with more questionable refereeing as he awards a penalty for a handball before booking the wrong man.
Nir Bitton misses the penalty before scoring the reboundhttps://t.co/nlLr4DqSY0 pic.twitter.com/1Z3BhdXvB9
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 13, 2022
SPFL referee Steven McLean booking the wrong player for a handball just about caps off a weekend of quite frankly pathetic officiating all round that I have witnessed.
— Sean McGinlay (@seanmcsport) February 13, 2022
Steven McLean has went full graham poll here man ??????
— Quinn67 (@DeclanQ33714202) February 13, 2022
Guys a Fukin CLOWN, END OF!!
The corrupt officials still cant book the right players what embarrassing yet again from the men in black.
He would have been better not giving a penalty, I could have lived with that. ??
Mental that , a suppose mistakes can happen. Easy enough today, some decent performances all round. Happy the now, hopefully kyogo back soon. HH
Look some referees make mistakes some of the time, But Scottish referees make mistakes all of the time, that’s why in top European Games & World Cup Games you shall not see or witness one Scottish refereeing official taking part, Scottish officials are not rated in the same category as there fellow referees officials from around europe or from around the world, The reason we do not have English referee’s and English officials participate in the Scottish game is because they can’t afford the financial expense as English referees and English officials get far more payments for officiating in the middle and for running the line etc etc !!!