Brendan Rodgers: Bring in English referees to ease burden

Brendan Rodgers has called on the Scottish FA to bring in referees from outside Scotland to relieve the burden on its under-pressure officials.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers talks to referee John Beaton. Picture: SNS

The Celtic manager believes the current need to depend on a relatively small number of “amateur” match officials, the absence of VAR and the nature of retrospective disciplinary procedures have impacted on the growing number of controversies involving referees this season.

“The poor guys refereeing the games are amateurs, with all due respect,” said Rodgers, referring to the officials who are paid match fees but are part-time referees. “The spotlight is on them severely from a professional side. They are going to make mistakes and then the aftermath seems a bit complicated.

“There is a wider issue around refereeing. Do you have enough up here? Is there a big enough pool of refs or does the net need to be spread wider? There is a real focus on the game here in Scotland, so do you need to branch that out? Should it be opened up to give more opportunities for refs to come into here – not just Scottish ones.

“If something happens or they need help, there’s no way to do it. You can’t demote as there’s no one there to do it. There’s a constant pressure on them. You want to attract more referees, why close it to just here? Open it up and have the best referees that could maybe come from England or Wales, or wherever.

“Then you have a diverse group of referees. OK, they might need help with expenses or whatever, if they are coming up from Swansea, but it just opens up the pool. That will also help the local refs. It’s about constant education [and so] it doesn’t shine the torch on the same referees all of the time.”