David Dickinson will referee Sunday’s match between Celtic and Hearts.
The Renfrew based official has a lengthy track record of key decisions going in a certain direction in matches involving Celtic.
Which is hardly surprising giving his family background.
Dickinson’s progress towards the top of Scottish refereeing seemed to stall last season with Willie Collum turning to Steven McLean to handle some of the bigger clashes.
With McLean no longer on the UEFA list for international jollies the tendency has been to improve the profile of Scotland’s international referees by putting them in charge of the top domestic matches.
Dickinson is back in the spotlight on Saturday with Hearts nursing multiple grievances as they return to Celtic Park.
@terryoneill67 I’ve seen lots of biased refs like syme, Waddell, Dallas etc but Dickinson worst ever in 40 yrs going. Remember Dundee Utd few weeks back denied stone wall pen & then gave them a shocker in 96th min. #sfa #corrupt #cheats @CelticFC call it out ffs
— D (@Thetrut54051138) February 18, 2026
WHY DICKINSON SHOULDN’T BE NEAR CELTIC MATCHES
Dickinson has yet to referee a Celtic match this season but he was in charge of Hearts for their SPFL opener away to Aberdeen.
A controversial late penalty for Aberdeen and a red card for Stuart Findlay made most of the headlines.
Dickinson’s last Celtic match was the post-split fixture away to Hibs which the hoops won 2-1.
That match was marked by a series of strange decisions by Dickinson and his colleague Don Robertson on VAR duty.
It took a VAR intervention to deliver a red card to Kieran McGrath for his brutal attack on Alistair Johnston.
Early in the second half Dickinson apparently missed seeing Ben Nygren being man handled out of the penalty area by Josh Campbell.
Celtic should have been awarded a penalty for that incident. Dickinson did pick up on a clash involving Liam Scales at the same incident which resulted in the Celtic defender being booked.
Chris Graham will be the VAR official for Sunday’s match which will be shown live on Sky Sports, hyped up on the back of last season’s title decider.
We are good enough at making a James Hunt of things as is stands, without adding fuel to the fire.
I just hope that win last weekend puts us back on track, and we stay there.