Celtic vs Rangers Scottish Cup Final referee revealed and John Beaton gets special job
Nick Walsh will take charge of this season's Scottish Cup Final.
Celtic go head-to-head with Rangers in the Hampden showdown for the first time in 22 years after beating Aberdeen and Hearts in their respective last four encounters. Brendan Rodgers' side will almost certainly be trying to claim a League and Cup double, while Philippe Clement will be desperate to add another piece of silverware to the League Cup he lifted back in December.
Walsh will be tasked with keeping a lid on things at the national stadium on Saturday May 25. He'll be assisted by Calum Spence and David Roome, with Steven McLean as fourth official. John Beaton will be the man in the VAR room, back at the screen after feeling Brendan Rodgers' wrath earlier in the season. Beaton was VAR as Celtic lost 2-0 to Hearts at Tynecastle and left Rodgers fuming with his calls to review the onfield decisions.
He adjudged Yang's high boot on Alex Cochrane to be a red card after Don Robertson had initially booked the Korean. He then called the whistler over to the screen and suggest he take a look at an apparent handball by Tomiki Iwata in the box, and Robertson awarded the jambos a spot-kick, which Jorge grant scored.
Rodgers namechecked Beaton and branded him "incompetent" after the game. In independent review of VAR decisions published by the SFA listed the penalty award as one of the 10 errors flagged in the report, although also concluded the penalty Celtic were awarded - which Adam Idah missed - at 0-0 was another blunder from officials and should not have been awarded. Rodgers has subsequently praised Beaton’s performances.