The SFA have announced that Willie Collum will referee next weekend’s Betfred Cup final between ourselves and Rangers – and also continued a trend that could indicate the official for the Celtic Park league derby.
Collum will take charge of the Hampden showpiece as we chase a tenth domestic trophy on the spin. The ref hasn’t officiated too many of our games so far this season. However, he was the man in the middle when Livingston stunned us in early October – sending Ryan Christie off in the process.
Collum was also a part of our terrific derby win at Ibrox in September, and that’s where things get a little interesting.
Collum appointment continues SFA succession plan
The SFA have adopted a pretty simple system of promoting referees for Glasgow derbies in recent seasons. Collum, John Beaton, Bobby Madden and Kevin Clancy all refereed clashes last season after being the fourth official in the previous meeting.
While the SFA aren’t exactly transparent with officiating matters, it seems fairly obvious that the idea is to ready the referees for the future clash by putting them on the touchline for the earlier fixture.
The chain was broken, briefly, by Craig Thomson who was the fourth official for our 2-0 defeat at Ibrox in May. While the idea was undoubtedly to appoint him as the main man for September’s match, he retired from officiating duties over the summer.
Bobby Madden was instead put in for our 2-0 Ibrox win with Collum installed as fourth official. It is therefore no surprise to see Collum back in the centre for Hampden next week.
History would dictate that the ref for the league clash against Rangers next month will be the fourth official from next week’s clash. That man is Kevin Clancy. Don’t be totally surprised to see him rocking up at Paradise on December 29th.
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