Foreign ref imports could be used in Scotland

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) is considering bringing in referees from Ireland and Scandinavia to take charge of top games at the weekend in the face of strike action by Scottish grade one officials.

The SFA are contractually bound to supply referees for matches and while there has been sympathy expressed for Scotland’s under-fire officials, who confirmed yesterday that they would go on strike, SFA chief executive Stewart Regan revealed that he has contingency plans, one of which is looking to Ireland as well as Scandinavia.

“We’ve got to make sure we bring in referees from those countries who are available,” he told radio station talkSPORT.

“It could be the Republic of Ireland, it could be the Scandinavian countries, there are a number of options open to us and we will be exhausting all of those.

“There will be a cost, it will be expensive bringing people in, not just match fees but the expense of getting them here as well.

“It affects 20 matches, a huge number of matches to cover and we sympathise with the referees because they’ve had a tough few weeks and they have been under massive scrutiny with challenges to their integrity.

“There has even been one MP coming out saying referees should declare their allegiances before matches which seemed a very bizarre request and quite frankly I think they have had enough.

“We have talks scheduled for the next few days but clearly with a contract to be fulfilled with the Scottish Premier League we have to put a contingency plan in and that’s what we are doing at the moment by looking elsewhere for officials.”

The season in Scotland so far has witnessed several high-profile refereeing controversies, notably involving Dougie McDonald’s handling of Celtic’s 2-1 win over Dundee United last month — during which he awarded Celtic what looked like a deserved penalty before overturning the decision after consulting with another official.

Willie Collum meanwhile received threatening phone calls after awarding Rangers a dubious penalty during their 3-1 victory at Celtic Park.

McDonald was warned by the SFA referees’ committee over his failure to give an accurate report of the circumstances surrounding his decision to rescind the Celtic penalty.

Celtic chairman John Reid, a former British Government minister, said Thursday McDonald should quit or be removed by the SFA after he admitted misleading Hoops manager Neil Lennon over the penalty decision.

Lennon has also been particularly vociferous in his criticism of officials after defeats by Rangers and Hearts.