Stats yet again laying bare unfair officiating in Scottish football…
Referee Don Robertson Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 27 September 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock
During yesterday’s frustrating goalless stalemate with Hibs, the stats back up the fact that we were the more dominant side when it comes to possession, shots on goal, and shots on target etc, but one other stat made for some interesting reading.
Juko James and Alan Morrison on Substack pointed this out:
’90 minutes had elapsed by the time Don Robertson awarded Celtic their one and only foul of the match at home to Hibernian on Saturday. Opta had the final foul count at 17 awards to Hibernian and one to the home side. A remarkable disparity. The ball was in play 56.84 minutes, and Celtic had what is a typical 75% possession.
Meaning Hibernian had possession of the ball for 14.21 minutes. Celtic, therefore, committed 17 fouls in those 14.21 minutes – 1.19 fouls a minute. Even more remarkable, given that most of Hibernians’ possession was spent standing around deciding which of the multiple balls to use.’
So the issue concerning discipline, which showed that Celtic received two cautions from sixteen fouls, and the away side receiving just one for the one offence they were deemed to have committed in the eyes of referee Don Robertson.
From the outside looking in, that stat would suggest that we enjoyed the lienency of the match officials as rival supporters were all to quick to point out on social media, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Hibs like every other side who visit Celtic Park were clearly under instructions to go down under the least minimal of contact, and as usual it worked.
Of the Celtic cautions, Liam Scales was more than worthy after hauling back a Hibs player on the attack, but his defensive partner Cameron Carter-Vickers was booked for the audacity to win the ball cleanly!
Hibs booking which went to Josh Mulligan in the 90th minute was deemed to be there only offence despite some questionable challenges and repetitive time wasting throughout the second period.
How can a team enjoy 78 percent of possession yet commit nigh on every foul in the game? Yes it is indeed a mystery, one that seems to be happening all too often.
Today theRangers scored at Livingston deep into the eight minutes of stoppage time John Beaton added on. Yet the day before despite all the stoppages, all the time spent inviting the Hibs physio onto the park to pretend to give treatment for non existent knocks, all the substitutions, all the time wasting by Hibs, Don Robertson added on just four minutes.
Match official Willie Collum arrives at the stadium prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Something is not right about the manner in which yesterday’s game was refereed. Celtic should be talking to Head of Referees Willie Collum about these matters tomorrow morning asking for some explanations.
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Thank you for great article. Why wasnt Steachan and Kennedy screaming at officials all game. Pair of cowards
💯 they have overstayed their welcome, much like most of the board. Celtic needs a fresh approach from top to bottom
Nicholson will be doing his own patented version of a silent protest – will say nothing to stand up for Celtic (against blatant cheating) or for the fans (against the police)… Sit back, take £900k and do nothing, what a cushy number
The board will do no such thing. Far from it…they will continue to sabotage Celtic FC from within. All the while, robbing the club blind.
Great article.
Agree 100%
This is their more subtle cheating that has been able tae go under the radar for far too long.
Needs called out!
It’s also worth pointing out, (ref, Celtic365) that robertson has refed 3 of our 6 games
If Celtic board and management are not going to raise these issues then the fans need to make it known every time these cheats turn up at Celtic Park, ie: chants of ‘THE REFS A CHEATING B@ST@RD’. And that includes the cheat running the VAR for Saturday’s game.
It’s simply not acceptable for anyone in this day and age to swallow the old “honest mistakes’ anymore. Even with the modern technology Celtic are still getting the overall rough end of the deal. Then these cheats simply get to skulk off into the shadows of their everyday lives.
Collum wants “openness” and a fairer set-up, well that’s never going to happen if cheats like Robertson, Beaton and McClean etc routinely get away with seriously questionable performances. Some sources are even reporting Celtic may have had another penalty claim ignored. McClean needs to be called out on this too.
Celtic TV also has to raise these issues during coverage of the games. Not just meekly mention it once or twice then continue commentary as if everything’s OK. What chance do we have with our own media silence as bad as the mainstream media? It’s simply not acceptable to briefly mention it once or twice then continue as though everything is running smoothly.
CCV’s perfect challenge is a great example here. It should have been shown multiple times in slow-mo from various angles to reinforce our case. There was at least one incident that Robertson didn’t actually see but he gave it anyway when he seen the Hibs player laying on the deck holding his head as if he’d been shot. Robertson could also be seen laughing with the Hibs players earlier in the game as he gave them free-kick after free-kick.
I’m sick fed up that Celtic are still being subjected to this level of, let’s call it incompetence and blatant cheating. Openness? Aye, right! Every one of those questionable decisions more than contributed to that game ending goalless. BTW, just for the record, that disallowed goal, for offside, was correct. So that and the Scales booking was 2 decisions they got right. And that’s Scotland’s top referees, apparently.
I also meant to add, not one of those Celtic players should have shook Robertsons hand at the end of the game but several of them did, including our captain. No idea if Rodgers did but i wouldn’t be surprised if he did. And if they wanted to know why Celtic employees didn’t shake their hands they should be told to take a look at their officiating of the game, if they really need an answer.
Watching this game was like beeing robbed.
Hibs players should be ashamed as well as the referee. They are not gentlemen in any way. This kind of behaviour (falling for nothing, grabing seconds for each throw in etc…) hurts our sport, badly.
It’s always the same in Scottish football it’s time that these referee’s have to tell the people where their allegiances lie as this corruption is getting worse every year in Scotland ☘️🇮🇪💚☘️🇮🇪💚