The dangerous double standards of Don Robertson exposed

When he awarded Ross County a penalty against Erik Sviatchenko in April 2017 it was clear that Don Robertson didn’t have what it takes to progress in refereeing. Except for viewers in Scotland.

Alex Schalk took an outrageous dive a full yard away from the Celtic defender but for reasons best known to himself Robertson awarded a penalty with the SFA continuing to promote him way beyond his ability.

Over a six week period in the winter of the 21/22 season the SFA had to step in and upgrade to red card bookings awarded for brutal attacks on David Turnbull and Yosuke Ideguchi that Robertson decided were only worth bookings.

Clearly he is a safety risk to players as Kyogo Furuhashi discovered yesterday. Football is a physical sport, there is always contact but when you raise an elbow towards an opponent you are crossing a line- unless Robertson is refereeing your match.

Earlier in the first half a free kick was awarded against Cameron Carter-Vickers carried out a perfect tackle- unfortunately Robertson viewed it differently and awarded St Johnstone a free-kick.

Having refereed two Glasgow Derbies this year Celtic players are likely to be suffering more of Robertson during 2024.