Three days after he answers an SFA Notice of Complaint at Hampden Brendan Rodgers will have to put up with Don Robertson for the Livingston v Celtic match.
With 18 different referees handling SPFL Premiership matches this season there is no real justification for the same referee to be in charge of two Celtic matches out of three.
Robertson hasn’t refereed a single match since he was following instructions from John Beaton at Tynecastle to deny Celtic the chance to go to the top of the Premiership on March 3.
After the match Rodgers described Beaton as incompetent, although he wasn’t named the match referee was effectively included in that description by viewing the monitor and changing his decision to the views of Beaton.
Fifteen minutes into the match Robertson judged Yang Hyun-jun to have earned a booking after Alex Cochrane charged towards him, after a VAR review the decision was upgraded to a red card.
Yang’s appeal was thrown out, he has been suspended for the two matches played since then but will be available for a rematch with Robertson on Sunday.
Shortly before half-time Beaton picked up on a handball involving Tomiki Iwata that escaped the players, referee and television coverage at the time. Again Robertson was summoned to the monitor, agreed with Beaton with Hearts taking the lead from the penalty spot.
Last week it was announced the Head of Refereeing Crawford Allan was stepping down at the end of the season, with Robertson’s appointment at Livingston he is clearly determined to go out in style.
Willie Collum will be in charge of the match between Hearts and Kilmarnock with David Dickinson getting his third match in 10 weeks involving Philippe Clement’s side when Hibs visit Ibrox.
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