EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 16: Referee John Beaton during a William Hill Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Rangers at Tynecastle Park, on February 16, 2025, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Scates/SNS Group via Getty Images)
It must be terribly difficult being John Beaton these days.
The poor man cannot get a moment’s peace.
Once upon a time life was simpler.
There were supporters of the Ibrox club who spoke about him almost with pride. Some of their forums used to boast that Beaton was “one of their own.” They said it openly and loudly. They said it often enough that eventually someone dug up that now infamous photograph of him sitting in a pro-Ibrox pub after a game involving Celtic.
That picture went everywhere.
And suddenly the narrative changed.
The same supporters who once talked about him as though he were part of the family now seem to regard him as public enemy number one. Their forums are full of anger. They are sick of him refereeing their games. They are sick of him refereeing ours.
It’s quite the turnaround.
Of course, their theory is that Beaton has swung the other way entirely. That he is now so desperate to appear neutral that he has started favouring Celtic just to prove he isn’t biased toward the Ibrox club.
In other words, they believe he’s practising some form of positive discrimination in Celtic’s favour.
You almost have to admire the creativity.
The irony here is delicious because Celtic supporters have a completely different view of the situation. In fact, it is almost the mirror image of the one you read on those forums.
Celtic fans despise John Beaton.
We do not trust him. We never have. Many of our supporters view him as a referee who should never be anywhere near a match involving Celtic or the Ibrox club.
And yet here we are.
At the weekend he awarded Celtic a penalty and sent off a Motherwell player. The reaction on certain Ibrox sites has been absolutely volcanic. Rage everywhere. Outrage everywhere. Endless threads about corruption, bias and injustice.
But Celtic supporters look at that same incident and see something else entirely. We see a referee who once again failed to make the correct decision in real time.
Because this is now the second weekend in a row where John Beaton has either ignored or missed a penalty incident involving Celtic FC. Two weeks ago at Ibrox he failed to award a late penalty until VAR intervened. At the weekend the same thing happened again.
On both occasions he changed his decision only after reviewing the incident on the monitor.
Which raises the obvious question.
If VAR had not stepped in, would Celtic have received either decision at all? The answer is no. Beaton made the on-field call and, without VAR intervention, nothing would have forced him to change it.
That is not the behaviour of a referee bending over backwards to help Celtic. It is the behaviour of a referee who, in the most generous interpretation, seems incapable of making the big call without technological assistance.
Two weeks ago I wrote a piece mocking Beaton’s now famous slow walk to the VAR monitor at Ibrox. It was pure sarcasm from start to finish. Watching him shuffle towards that screen during Celtic games with all the enthusiasm of a man heading to a tax audit has become one of Scottish football’s more surreal sights.
But the truth behind the joke is serious.
Because what we are watching now is a referee who is trusted by nobody and who goes out every single game now under the most incredible pressure.
Ibrox supporters believe he is overcompensating to avoid accusations of bias. Celtic supporters believe he should never have been officiating these matches in the first place. Every major decision he makes now becomes a fresh controversy because every group of supporters views it through the lens of suspicion.
It must be exhausting.
The man is under scrutiny from every direction. Every decision is dissected. Every call becomes another round in a never-ending argument about bias and influence.
And yet the Scottish Football Association continues to send him into the middle of these fixtures as though nothing is wrong. This isn’t fair to anyone concerned at this point, not to the clubs, not the man himself.
That is the truly absurd part of this whole situation.
Because the real question here is not whether Beaton is biased toward one club or another. The real question is why the SFA continues to place one of its referees in a position where his credibility is so completely compromised.
Any competent governing body would recognise the problem immediately. If a referee has become so controversial that supporters of multiple clubs believe he cannot officiate fairly, the sensible solution is obvious.
You take him off those fixtures. You remove him from the equation.
But doing that would require the SFA to admit something it clearly does not want to admit. Because if John Beaton cannot referee Celtic against the Ibrox club, then the uncomfortable question immediately follows.
How many other referees are in the same position? Robertson certainly is; his own pro-Ibrox loyalties are a well known fact and his family are die-hards over there, creating yet more pressure and few people believe he officiates fairly or can.
How many other officials have relationships, histories or reputations that make supporters doubt their neutrality?
Fixing the Beaton problem would force the SFA to look much more closely at the system that produced it. And that would mean change. Real change.
Which is precisely why the situation continues exactly as it is.
So spare a thought for poor John Beaton.
Trusted by nobody. Hated by everybody. A referee trapped in a permanent storm of suspicion that grows louder with every match he officiates.
It must be unbearably sad.
But the real tragedy here is not John Beaton’s reputation.
The real tragedy is that the people running Scottish football seem perfectly content to leave him in that position.
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As I mentioned last week, having watched Celtic and Scottish football for more that 60 years, I have never known a team to have the same referee appointed for two consecutive league matches. John Beaton was appointed for the Motherwell match on Saturday and our previous match at Ibrox 2 weeks ago.
Are there no fuckin referees from say Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Edinburgh etc etc…
Must they all be from Glasgow or Lanarkshire…
I remember Crombie from Edinburgh, Valentine from Dundee, no friends of Celtic but neither friends of Sevco either, in fact I’d say they leaned heavily towards Aberdeen and Dundee United but they certainly weren’t so heavily comprised for sure…
Incidentally I had a Sevco fan try to tell me that Robertson was ‘one of youse’ (Celtic) and that he went to a Catholic school…
No idea either way but he’s far too lenient to Sevco Hun (and plenty other) fuckin thuggery…
That’s for sure !
Clach, we have 12 referee associations in our small country with a least half of them Easterners or Northeners. Is their training any less than the West/Central belt – who knows – but I suspect the courses are standard throughout the Referee Associations. If Celtic had balls they would demand referees outwith the Lanarkshire, Glasgow and Ayrshire Associations and at a push also the Stirling and South of Scotland Associations. Surely, we can within a reasonable timescale get decent referees from the remaining 7 Associations.
There’s really nothing left to say about Beaton.
All Celtic fans know that he’s a Sevco diehard, and as you say, is currently
suffering severe anguish and stress, as a result of the last few weeks.
That Sevco fans still question his “loyalty”, tells you all you need to know about the levels of obtuseness, that emanates over there.
As you correctly state, blame his employers for their inability/refusal to sort this nonsense. They’ve only had decades to do so, and still, not enough pressure is put on the SFA, primarily by our club, but by others !!!
These cheats, whilst they have the chance, will still try to play a large part in where this title ends up !
Our form and on field behaviour has to be impeccable, from here on in.
Let’s pray these barstewards don’t get too many opportunities to influence our games ! HH
If both Glasgow teams feel that Beaton is somehow harbouring a grudge against both teams and that is affecting his performance then surely the most sensible course of action would be to remove him from the referee pool?
Beaton’s bosses have the same inherent anti-Celtic/pro-Hun prejudices as the man himself. Why would they remove a fellow-traveller from his position?
Hail Hail.
Why has our Club… and why does our Club …continually leave us to get embroiled in this nonsense ?….As others have said…Beaton should be nowhere near ours and Sevco’s fixtures…The Board needs to call it out NOW…It’s gone on far too long.
The problem Scotland has is it is such a small country that most people are interested in football so refs will either follow one team or their family, friends or neighbours will. So they are spotlighted regularly when controversial decisions are made. Not sure what the answer is but the authorities should start by having refs declaring loyalties. It will mean more refs stepping up of poorer quality but they cannot be any worse than the ones we have now.
Regarding last weeks hand ball, I do not think Beaton saw it. Celtic TV missed it but he did take his time walking to the monitor. I wonder what was going thro his mind. Beam me up Scotty would be my thoughts.
As far as I know Beaton has only next season to go before retiral from refereeing, then he’ll join his other ex referees, The Rangers supporting brethren in the stands assessing younger referees, aye there’s no escaping these Hun referees, only death lol.
As far as Robertson goes I’ve read conflicting reports of where his loyalties lie, but the one to watch for is Dickinson, this guy is out to inherit Beatons accolade as “one of us” down Ibrox way.
Beaton has become so conflicted he should never referee a Celtic or The Rangers game, he brought it upon himself over the years by becoming so obviously biased towards the Ibrox team and anti Celtic. The three red card offences a number of years ago by Morelos, against us at Ibrox, ignored by him, should have been enough to call a halt to his refereeing career, but hey this is Scottish Fotball and was never going to happen.
VAR for all it’s faults, curbs the excesses of cheating by some Scottish refs, and it must be hard for some of them in that long walk towards the monitor, knowing that they will probably have to award a decision in favour of they Fxxxxx Bxxxxxxx . Oh the pain of it!
Regarding the penalty decision and red card last Saturday. On Radio Rangers at Pacific Quay, even ex Rangers FC player Ian McCall told a Motherwell fan who called in moaning about it, that he thought it was the clearest Penalty and red card he had seen in a long time, and that it verged on a Rugby tackle. Yet Beaton was only around 5 yards away with a clear view and VAR had to force him into awarding the penalty.
Would making referees full time make the difference? I know there would still be an element of huns appointing huns but going full time might lead to better standards, more consistency and better professionals.