GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 15: Referee Don Robertson interacts with Jack Butland of Rangers during the Premier League match between Rangers and Hibernian at Ibrox Stadium on December 15, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Two weeks after failing to award Celtic a penalty away to Hibs the SFA have appointed Don Robertson to referee Saturday’s title decider against Hearts.
With the Easter Road match level at 1-1 Ben Nygren burst into the penalty box only to be confronted by Josh Campbell.
When the Hibs substitute was unable to usher the ball out of play he raised two hands to ensure that Nygren didn’t reach it. Pushing the Celtic player to the ground.
Match referee David Dickinson and his assistant Calum Spence missed the incident.
Dickinson did book Campbell and Liam Scales for squaring upto each other.
ROBERTSON ON VAR AT HIBS V CELTIC
At this point Robertson on VAR duty should have stepped in but there was no mention from Sky Sports that a VAR Review was taking place.
Last Friday the KMI Panel of the SFA announced that a mistake was made, Celtic should have had a penalty.
Covering the Nygren incident the KPI Panel noted:
The panel unanimously agreed that the on-field decision was incorrect. The panel highlighted VAR should have intervened to recommend an OFR and a penalty should have been awarded.
Celtic fans and many pundits were surprised when the Hibs equaliser was allowed to stand.
Footage appeared to show the ball striking Joe Newall twice on the arm before he shot past Vil Sinisalo.
During their coverage Sky Sports announced that there had been insufficient evidence to disallow the goal.
Robertson has been left out of refereeing in the last two rounds of top six SPFL Premiership fixtures.
Now he will referee the match that will decide if Celtic or Hearts are the 25/26 SPFL Champions.
Spence, who was the assistant closest to the Nygren push will be one of his assistants. David Roome is the other.
Robertson has refereed Celtic six times already this season including two 0-0 draws at Ibrox
He also refereed the most recent Edinburgh derby where he sent off two Hibs players with no controversy over either decision.
Kevin Clancy will be on VAR duty for Saturday’s match assisted by Matthew MacDermid.
A draw will be good enough for Hearts to win the title, for Celtic only a win will do to clinch a fifth successive SPFL title.
We know how this is going…
We win the title on Saturday.
This league title win will be referred to as something like ‘the cheated league title’ by others,
for years to come.
And that is absolutely fine!
How many league titles did the original Rangers cheat – with ineligible, EBT-paid players – for a decade?
We have many more titles ‘to cheat’ before we get anywhere near the old ibrox club!
The history books only list the winners. 🙂
Derek McInness is disgusting.
Win,lose or draw, he’s a fucking loser.
It could be worse I suppose (Dickinson / Aitken) ref / VAR etc…
But Robertson is very very lienient to thuggery and I think Hearts hammer throwers and McInnes will very much appreciate and exploit that fu**in leniency to the full !
Bang on the money there, Clach.
It’s going to be a tense affair on Saturday. We need an early goal to settle the nerves, like Henrik v St Johnstone in 1998. Actually, that’s probably a bad example. I was totally bricking it until Harald scored. ?
Hail Hail.
Jeezo, the penalty incident has even made it onto the BBC national news at 1 pm – the idealists/romantics of this world clearly want a Hearts title win but football can be a cruel world at times, and that goes for us too, on Saturday. COYBIG – let’s do it.
Or as he’s also known as …..Ron Dobertson ! Poor Mr Beaton will certainly feel the wrath from the locals of the Crown Bar for his ‘quick ‘ penalty decision after looking at the VAR screen ? No more buckshee booze ! Quick …because it was so obvious that it was a penalty for hand ball in the penalty box . All of the ‘ Hearts until Saturday ‘ fans from all over the place are hurting and petrified and are bricking it at the prospect of another Celtic league triumph . What would it say about the quality and character of the opposition if Hearts failed after being so far ahead at the top of the league for so long to a club mired in conflict and discord between the board and fans for most of the season and who has many of its senior players suffering from chronic injuries many of whom are still not fit to play ? This will rank as one of the greatest ever Celtic league wins on Saturday taking all of this into consideration…maybe the greatest . Don’t let anyone say any different !
The media can’t hide their hatred for our club
It’s on display everywhere today .
Still our useless rat board welcome them
Win or lose this title everyone of them must be flushed out
Robertson is a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. I’m not sure he is particularly pro-hun / anti Celtic but he makes a lot of errors and lets a lot of heavy tackles go unpunished. If there are statistics collated for such things, I imagine he might be the referee who is corrected most frequently by VAR.
He did however – when prompted by VAR as usual – disallow that goal at Ibrox for the foul on Lagerbielke in the build up when many of his contemporaries (never mind his predecessors) would have let it stand. That took a bit of minerals.
Imagine the disbelief amongst the suits right now.
They’ve spent the season managing a decline and STILL we only need to win one game to be champions.
Can’t even begin to imagine how far ahead we would be as a club if we had suits capable of joined up thinking.
Will MN & DD have the brass neck to turn up and celebrate?