ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 10: Celtic's Callum McGregor (R) and referee John Beaton during a William Hill Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie, on August 10, 2025, in Aberdeen, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Unsurprisingly, legacy media has barely ‘touched’ on John Beaton’s performance during Celtic’s 2-0 win over Aberdeen on Sunday.
Social media hasn’t held back with handball proving to be a very difficult issue for the man from the Crown Bar in Bellshill.
Fortunately there is no accountability in refereeing, while Willie Collum is in charge of refereeing at the SFA Beaton has an assured second income stream and access to influencing Scotland’s top matches.
Twice in the opening 10 minutes at Pittodrie Aberdeen players blatantly handled the ball, they were up there at Goldson levels but both times Beaton opted to take no action, he decided against applying the Laws of the Game.
There were no replays of this handball by the Aberdeen player in their own penalty area.
It also seemed to escape the attention of VAR. https://t.co/0sAGTbw7k5 pic.twitter.com/7Lf6aPl7Lc
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) August 11, 2025
Seven minutes in Graeme Shinnie fell to the ground then put both arms in front of the ball to prevent Celtic from cutting it across goal, his actions prevented the ball from going out, Beaton viewed it and awarded Aberdeen a goal-kick.
Sky Sports decided not to focus on the incident, one long range replay was all that viewers were given.
There was no half-time review despite a lack of first half incidents, Kris Boyd was denied sharing his personal views on a refereeing mistake.
On VAR duty Andrew Dallas decided not to review Shinnie’s handball.
A few minutes after the Shinnie handball there was another blatant handball, since it resulted in an outstanding save from Kasper Schmeichel it was replayed although there was virtually no comment on the handball missed by Beaton that started the move.
5 yards away and in Beaton’s eye-line, yet the ref ignored the handball.
Kasper saved well and you’d hope VAR would intervene had he not, but this was yet another example of the dreadful officiating we called out on ACSOM yesterday.
— A Celtic State Of Mind (ACSOM) (@ACSOMPOD) August 11, 2025
The more obvious handball that led to Schmeichel’s eighth minute save
Lol all those megabucks being mentioned in transfer fees for sevco middle of the road nickel&dime players throughout the Summer,30,40,50 million targets floating about,it was like a menu of players to take your choice from.
Then in the last 24 hours,Jefte is available to a Brazilian team for 5 million bang bangs and yet sevco knocked back 30 million quid for previously.
Then you have Ronaldo Raskin aka with Wee Man’s Syndrome,wanting to fight the world mentioned in a 40 million bid from some club now heading out the door for 15 million bang .
Then you have Dessers another 30 million big ones available for a quarter of that,with absolutely JACKSHIT cash being put forward for the Morrocan Messi.
I can’t wait for next Summer for them to win the Summer transfer cup.
The Sky Bastards are just as bad as The Cheatin’ Beaton Bastard !