John Beaton will referee the Glasgow derby on January 2, the first match with Peter Lawwell as chairman of Celtic.
The Lanarkshire based official has a stormy record in the fixture, after his performance in December 2018 the follow up storm on social media forced Celtic into a statement:
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.
There was never any follow up to that statement, no explanation given with Beaten continuing to get appointed for high profile fixtures. Last season he refereed the 1-1 draw between the Glasgow clubs in May.
Beaton has only refereed one Celtic match this season, sending off Callum McGregor against Motherwell soon after ignoring a clear handball in the penalty area by Ricki Lamie from a Liel Abada cross.
The Ibrox fixture will be the first Glasgow derby with VAR in operation, Willie Collum will be in a studio watching the action coming in from Sky Sports. Don Robertson will be the fourth official at Ibrox which could be a pointer towards him getting the next derby, at Celtic Park in March.
Nick Walsh refereed the September derby which Celtic won 4-0.
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McGregor got sent off. All the others who committed the same “Professional Foul” were only booked!
Including a disgraceful lunge by John Lundstrum which would have seen him jailed if he had done it on the street!