Stats highlight strange officiating, Celtic must call Collum for an explanation

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The Celtic Star

·28. September 2025

Stats highlight strange officiating, Celtic must call Collum for an explanation

Stats yet again laying bare unfair officiating in Scottish football…

Referee Don Robertson Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 27 September 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

During yesterday’s frustrating goalless stalemate with Hibs, the stats back up the fact that we were the more dominant side when it comes to possession, shots on goal, and shots on target etc, but one other stat made for some interesting reading.

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Juko James and Alan Morrison on Substack pointed this out:

’90 minutes had elapsed by the time Don Robertson awarded Celtic their one and only foul of the match at home to Hibernian on Saturday. Opta had the final foul count at 17 awards to Hibernian and one to the home side. A remarkable disparity. The ball was in play 56.84 minutes, and Celtic had what is a typical 75% possession.

Meaning Hibernian had possession of the ball for 14.21 minutes. Celtic, therefore, committed 17 fouls in those 14.21 minutes – 1.19 fouls a minute. Even more remarkable, given that most of Hibernians’ possession was spent standing around deciding which of the multiple balls to use.’

So the issue concerning discipline, which showed that Celtic received two cautions from sixteen fouls, and the away side receiving just one for the one offence they were deemed to have committed in the eyes of referee Don Robertson.

From the outside looking in, that stat would suggest that we enjoyed the lienency of the match officials as rival supporters were all to quick to point out on social media, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Hibs like every other side who visit Celtic Park were clearly under instructions to go down under the least minimal of contact, and as usual it worked.

Of the Celtic cautions, Liam Scales was more than worthy after hauling back a Hibs player on the attack, but his defensive partner Cameron Carter-Vickers was booked for the audacity to win the ball cleanly!

Hibs booking which went to Josh Mulligan in the 90th minute was deemed to be there only offence despite some questionable challenges and repetitive time wasting throughout the second period.

How can a team enjoy 78 percent of possession yet commit nigh on every foul in the game? Yes it is indeed a mystery, one that seems to be happening all too often.

Today theRangers scored at Livingston deep into the eight minutes of stoppage time John Beaton added on. Yet the day before despite all the stoppages, all the time spent inviting the Hibs physio onto the park to pretend to give treatment for non existent knocks, all the substitutions, all the time wasting by Hibs, Don Robertson added on just four minutes.

Match official Willie Collum arrives at the stadium prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Something is not right about the manner in which yesterday’s game was refereed. Celtic should be talking to Head of Referees Willie Collum about these matters tomorrow morning asking for some explanations.

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