SFA Double Standards- Don Robertson and John Beaton

The Laws of the Game are the same the world over but in Scotland you will find radically different interpretations.

Firstly there is no ‘last man’ law but if you deny your opponents a goalscoring opportunity the punishment is a red card. There is no guidance on distance, no allowance for ability, or lack of, but if you deny an opponents a chance to score the punishment is the same.

Crawford Allan supervises match officials at the SFA, he keeps everyone upto date with the annual changes to interpretation from FIFA.

Yesterday John Beaton put in exactly the sort of display that fans have come to expect. At every opportunity he tries to slow the game down, almost every time a Motherwell player was tackled a foul was given, 30-60 seconds eaten up while Liam Kelly wasted time from the first whistle. No added time was played at the end of the first half.

Into the second half Beaton chose to ignore a clear handball that would have given Celtic a penalty and resulted in a second yellow card for Ricki Lamie, Beaton had a clear view as did his assistant.

A two goal cushion against 10 men presents a very different closing 20 minutes, Beaton’s decision kept the game alive with the consequences realised in the 89th minute when Callum McGregor clashed with Ross Tierney. Beaton was on the scene straight away, red card out and suddenly Motherwell’s time wasting was rewarded with five minutes of stoppage time.

Last month Don Robertson was presented with a similar scenario when Ross County were at Ibrox. Midway through the first half with the match goal-less Jordy Hiwula was hauled to the ground by the already booked James Sands. Robertson chose not to notice the incident, Sands stayed on the park, picking up a bonus with his side winning 4-0.

Since Celtic sat on their hands over Steven McLean’s refusal to award a penalty and send off Josh Meekings in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final against Inveness Caley Thistle the club has been a hostage to honest mistakes.

A year later McLean was rewarded with the Scottish Cup Final appointment. Kevin Clancy, Robertson, Willie Collum, Nick Walsh, Bobby Madden and others know that mistakes in Celtic matches will retain their place on the rota for top matches.

Once again this week the Celtic board will say nothing, any contact with the SFA brings a reminder of whose fat fIngerprints are all over the 2012 Five Way Agreement. The last thing that the Celtic board want is for that document to see the light of day.