Brendan Rodgers admits he’s not sorry for calling out John Beaton – but insists it was not part of some simmering personal feud with the under fire official.
Rodgers faces an SFA rap and a possible Old Firm derby day ban for accusing Beaton and ref Don Robertson of ‘incompetence’ during a controversial defeat at Tynecastle on Sunday. The Parkhead manager went out of his way during a series of post match interviews to name Beaton as the man in charge of the VAR technology – and appeared to blame him for the decision to red card Hyung-jun Yang and award Hearts with a penalty late in the first half.
That led former Celtic boss Neil Lennon to suggest Rodgers has a legacy issue with Beaton stretching back to his first stint in the hot seat – when Beaton needed police protection after taking charge of a heated Old Firm derby at Ibrox in January 2019. And it has been compared with an attempt by Rangers to demonise Willie Collum within a section of their support by demanding that the top whistler is no longer allowed to officiate any of their side’s matches.
But Rodgers insists he doesn’t view Beaton as Celtic’s bogeyman. He said: “That shouldn’t be the case and I’m not saying that – I’m talking about one game here. I’m talking about the game at the weekend. I’m not talking about legacy issues or any other games.
“John’s refereed games that he’s been really good in. So I don’t have an issue with that. I’m talking about that one game and that was my view of that game. It’s not about anything else. Let’s focus on the football and on making good decisions.”
But Rodgers insists he does not regret calling Beaton out by name. He said: “No. No, we’re all accountable. Everyone knows he was in the VAR. So it’s not a secret – I haven’t mentioned someone who would never have been known.
“My point was more that it was someone of that experience who looked at it. John’s been around for a while now – he’s refereed big games. So I wasn’t calling John out for his name to be out there.
“It was more, ‘This is a top referee managing the game and supposedly a top referee in VAR, under no pressure,’. But they still got it wrong. That’s the bigger worry for me.
“That it was two of your top referees. We had a great one with Willie Collum the week before. There was a shout for the player to be sent off, ‘Have a look at this Willie,’.
“He gets a bit of stick, Willie Collum. But do you know what? He ran over, he looked at the screen and he went, ‘No, no, no – it’s not!’. It didn’t look like a sending off in the game but there was obviously a shout for him to have a look at it. But he ran over, he used his experience and said, ‘No, no. I get what you’re saying but it’s not a sending off,’.”
Rodgers says he’ll fight his case when he’s carpeted on Hampden’s sixth floor on March 28 – and insists Robertson and Beaton bungled game changing decisions. He said: “If you work together as a team and you have experience then hopefully you get to the right decisions.
“It was a big game. That’s clearly why they were on it. So you’re hoping then for the big decisions to be right. And, honestly, I didn’t even think they were big decisions – they had big consequences – but they weren’t big decisions. Not when you actually know the referee has given the right one in the game.
“And then anyone who watches football will look at the penalty and know that there’s absolutely no way on this earth that it’s a penalty.
“That’s obviously the frustration and that’s the emotion that you guys don’t feel. After a game when you’ve seen something like that and you are asked to comment on it. Most of the time you don’t. But that was something I felt was pivotal.”
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
