Rugby Park VAR given whistle for Celtic’s trip to Dens Park

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The Celtic Star

·15 de outubro de 2025

Rugby Park VAR given whistle for Celtic’s trip to Dens Park

Matthew MacDermid has been appointed referee for Celtic’s Scottish Premiership match against Dundee at Dens Park on Sunday afternoon…

Dens Park Dundee. Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

MacDermid will take charge of this weekend’s match against Steven Pressley’s side, with Dougie Potter and Chris Rae operating as his assistant referees. Gavin Duncan will oversee VAR operations at Clydesdale House, with Sean Carr providing support as his assistant VAR.

Vídeos OneFootball

Referee Matthew MacDermid with Callum McGregor. Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

This will be MacDermid’s first time refereeing a Celtic fixture this season, having previously overseen Dundee in their 1-0 loss to St Mirren in Paisley last month.

Last campaign, the 32-year-old officiated three of Celtic’s domestic fixtures, beginning with the Hoops’ 4-0 victory over St Johnstone at Celtic Park last December.

He later took charge of Celtic’s 4-1 victory over Ross County in Dingwall in January before being the man in the middle for Brendan Rodgers’ side’s 5-2 triumph against St Mirren in March.

Referee Matthew MacDermid. St Mirren v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Saturday 1st March 2025. Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

MacDermid was VAR for Celtic’s controversial encounter against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in September where Sunday’s whistler sent referee John Beaton over to the monitor to have a look at Lewis Mayo’s handball.

This resulted in Beaton giving a penalty kick and Kelechi Iheanacho stepping up to secure three important points for the Scottish champions at a tough away venue.

Kelechi Iheanacho scores the winner for Celtic at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

It took a few weeks, perhaps even a month for Killie boss Stuart Kettlewell to get over the decision, but SFA Head of Refereeing Willie Collum clarified the call in the VAR Review Show last Friday.

“It’s a really debatable incident, this,” Collum said. “The big thing for the VAR here is about the arm being up. If the shot goes direct here, and hits Lewis Mayo without a deflection, it’s 100 per cent a penalty kick. Even in this situation with this deflection, in law, you can justify the penalty.”

“However, Gordon [Duncan], I’ve said from day one, we’ve spoken about stakeholders’ views. Nobody accepted this. The feeling is that this should not be punished going forward. Moving forward, if this exact same decision happened again, we do not want to award a penalty kick.”

With a big month ahead across the Premiership, Premier Sports League Cup and the Europa League, hopefully we will be talking about reinvigorated Celtic performances and results on the pitch rather than Willie Collum or VAR controversy for that matter.

And after having to endure the usual International break boredom it all be great to have club football back in Sunday at the start of an intense seven game run of vital fixtures across three competitions that can really shape our season.

Dens Park Dundee. Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

There are a few players returning with slight injury concerns but hopefully everyone is fit and good to go for the trip to Dens Park on Sunday for the midday kick-off.

Conor Spence

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Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star

Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Photo: Celtic Star Books