Kasper Schmeichel saved John Beaton from another mass of controversy as Scotland’s leading referee once again delivered an ‘unexplainable’ decision against Celtic.
Willie Collum won’t be rushing in front of the cameras or to his media chums to explain the decision making process of his pal from Lanarkshire any time soon.
In the eighth minute of the match Celtic were looking to build up a move just inside the Aberdeen half.
Ben Nygren’s short pass was blocked and diverted to a team-mate by the arm of one of the Aberdeen players, the incident took place right in front of Beaton who saw it clearly.
In March 2024 Brendan Rodgers described Beaton as incompetent while on VAR duty, most Celtic fans have other descriptions for the man from the Crown Bar in Bellshill.
Aberdeen quickly broke, Adil Aouchiche found some space, turned inside and was only denied a goal by a brilliant full length save by Schmeichel.
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
Beaton saw the incident clearly and decided not to stop for a free kick and the possible booking of the Aberdeen player.
He then ran forward following the play, he could have blown at any moment realising his error but his natural inclination is to level up in all matches involving Scotland’s most successful club.
Had Aouchiche found the net a VAR Review would have disallowed the goal, denying Aberdeen a stunning opener because of Beaton’s decision making.
The potential consequences weren’t quite over.
Had Aberdeen scored from the corner a VAR Review couldn’t be called on the incident that led to Schmeichel’s save and the corner.
Once Beaton realised that the corner had been overhit he blew for an imaginary foul in Celtic’s favour. Two wrongs make a right, the first rule of SFA refereeing.
When Beaton routinely gets put in charge of the top matches by Willie Collum it is easy to understand why UEFA and FIFA don’t let SFA officials anywhere near serious fixtures.
Impossible to miss
It’s cheating
And our board has let this man cheat for seasons
They left it to BR2 to complain a few seasons back and DD s lawyer ended up involved but hey ho,here we are years later and this Hun is still cheating us to this day
Our board are weak as piss
— ??THE GREEN FOX?? (@jg2394044) August 11, 2025
Correct. Imagine if that shot had went in & they had to call it back, again it would look to the masses that we were receiving assistance of sorts, & i genuinely think that’s their game] Celtic get all the decisions, yada-yada, but clearly Beaton should have saw that, unreal.
— Hot?G (@HotKnife88) August 11, 2025
VAR wouldn’t have intervened if Dons had scored from the resulting corner though. Wouldn’t have led to even more uproar about standard of refereeing.
— Common Sense Guardian (@JustCmnCents) August 11, 2025
That beathun is a scheming cnut , BR put manners on him and the cheating cabal last season and brought about the penalty drought for sevco which all but put and end to tavpens jollies !!! BR will have to have a word in willies ear to remind him the bad old days won’t be acceptable to Celtic anymore
The bad days have never went away with this mob and never will with the invisible man at the helm .
Beaton looking right at the ‘ handball ‘ 3 yards away , yet did not call the foul ? Sponsored by Specsavers too ..makes it worse !
Beatons no the worst.