Ian Maxwell Follow Follows his orders from Ibrox over Willie Collum

For the third match running the SFA are following their orders from Ibrox by keeping Willie Collum away from their matches.

Since the request was made public Alan Muir and Steven McLean have been appointed for matches involving Philippe Clement’s side, on Saturday the equally staunch David Dickinson will referee the match away to Motherwell.

Collum could have been eased back in as the fourth official or on VAR duty but Chris Fordyce and Don Robertson are trusted for those roles.

Highlighting his exclusion Collum will be fourth official at Livingston against Dundee, keeping an eye on the managers and substitutions with rookie ref Ross Hardie out on the pitch.

The SFA has previous for this sort of exclusion, in season 2018/19 Collum was excluded from matches involving Steven Gerrard’s side for six months after a statement was issued following the decision to send off Daniel Candeias away to St Mirren.

Despite the three statements handed to media partners criticising the handling of the Glasgow Derby no disrepute charges have been issued by the SFA.

Collum could be given any one of three different roles in matches but after a very public request it is clear that Ian Maxwell and Crawford Allan don’t want to again upset their friends at Ibrox.