NafisaDes Roache believes John Beaton’s reputation has been completely damaged following his decision to award Celtic a dramatic late penalty for handball in their 3-2 win over Motherwell.
And the former top-flight official has labelled the standard of officiating in the Scottish Premiership a “laughing stock”.
With the game tied at 2-2 at Fir Park, Beaton was instructed by Andrew Dallas on VAR duty at Clydesdale House to check the monitor for a possible handball offence by Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson inside the box as he competed in the air with Celtic defender Auston Trusty.
It then took just 17 seconds for Beaton to award the penalty, with Kelechi Iheanacho stepping up to net the winner and keep Celtic just one point behind leaders Hearts, whom they face in a title decider on the final day of the season on Saturday at Parkhead.
Earlier on Thursday, reports elsewhere suggested the SFA would support Beaton and believed he arrived at the correct outcome after reviewing the footage.
But former Grade One referee Roache was stunned by the call and expressed disappointment that Beaton failed to reject VAR’s recommendation and allow play to continue.
Speaking on Record Sport’s Hotline Live on Thursday alongside Keith Jackson and Daniel Caw, he said: “As soon as John went across, I had the feeling in the pit of my stomach that he is going to go with this. And for it to last less than 20 seconds before he turned and gave a penalty kick, I was really surprised.
“I can understand the human element (about Beaton’s decision) to an extent however what I don’t accept is the professionalism that you have got to have in that position.
“You are being paid to do a job and you are being lauded as one of our best referees who is up to date with the laws of the game. You should have a strong enough character to turn around and say (to VAR) ‘no thank you, I am happy with my decision’ and get on with it.
“Unfortunately we do know what the repercussions could have been on the back of that. It’s not nice to say but I would like to have thought that John Beaton would have been professional and the courage in his own convictions to say ‘yes, I disagree with you Andrew, I’m taking it.”
“Keith said he has been flung under a double decker bus, I’d say he has been thrown in front of the Eurostar train going at 50 miles an hour. There is potentially no coming back from this (for Beaton).
“I think his credibility could be shot from this. I think among the football fraternity, his reputation has taken a massive sledgehammer to it.
“Regarding the SFA, I hold them accountable. People think we have got a vendetta against Willie Collum, no we don’t. The reason we make opinions is that he is making public opinions that we either happen to agree or not agree with, it’s nothing personal.
“We’ve seen Willie Collum and the SFA explain decisions for very similar handball incidents that are not punishable by penalty kicks and that’s been sent down to the referees in training.
“I’ve said all along that refereeing is about the education and training you are given. And the same people who keep getting the same games and are making the same mistakes, keep appearing again and again.
“Handball rules go from A to B to C to D every week. There is no consistency and it’s horrible. Scottish football and refereeing right now is a laughing stock, that game was a laughing stock.
“That is the level we are working to and I wouldn’t be surprised if everybody started saying ‘no, we can’t trust it.”
Nafisa
