What Celtic fans will be surprised to learn about the Premier Sports Cup final referee and VAR team

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Celtic are preparing for two big games in the Europa League and the Premier Sports Cup final this week.

Roma will visit Celtic Park on Thursday night where Wilfried Nancy will have the opportunity to atone for the Hearts defeat at the weekend.

After that, Celtic face St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup final where the Frenchman will have the chance to win his first piece of silverware at the club.

With the Hampden showpiece occasion expected to be a sell-out, the SFA have announced the match officials for the big game and Celtic fans will be surprised to learn two things about the referee and VAR operator.

• READ MORE: Wilfried Nancy shares what he really thought of the Celtic Park fan ‘passion’ after Hearts defeat

Who the SFA have appointed for the Premier Sports Cup final clash between Celtic and St Mirren

Referees and VAR have become one of the season’s big talking points as the match officials’ blunders continued to dominate the headlines.

Here is who the SFA have appointed for the showpiece Hampden final on Sunday the 14th of December:

Referee: Kevin Clancy

Assistant referees: Callum Spence and Gordon Crawford

VAR: Don Robertson

Assistant VAR: Matthew MacDermid

Clancy and Robertson are probably two of the most experienced officials in Scottish football but there is something about the pair being given this game, that will surprise Celtic fans.

SFA duo Kevin Clancy and Don Robertson’s surprise Celtic cup final stat

Kevin Clancy has refereed numerous Celtic games over his career and the Hoops have a decent winning record under his watch with 48 wins, eight draws and seven losses out of 63 games.

However, in his whole career, Clancy has refereed just one final involving Celtic which was the double-treble Scottish Cup win over Motherwell back in 2018. That was his last time he headed up a major domestic final in Scottish football.

As for Don Robertson, his refereeing experience cannot be denied with over 500 matches as the man in the middle.

But as a VAR operator, Robertson’s experience is fairly limited, with just over 60 games in charge of the technology, never in a cup final, and just once in a Scottish Premiership match involving Celtic.

With so much riding on Sunday’s final for Celtic and St Mirren, let’s hope it’s the game people are talking about rather than the SFA appointing two officials with limited experience in cup finals as either a referee or VAR operator.