Honest Mistakes 2025/26 - To Week 10

Bringing us up to date with the league decisions

There has been a scarcity of refereeing reviews recently due to the combination of Cup matches, international breaks, but most tellingly the absence of referrable decisions. Maybe Willie Collum is doing something right?

A Scottish League Cup Semi-Final special will be along shortly, but for now, a quick catch-up on league play to bring us up to date.

29/10/25 Celtic vs Falkirk

Incident 1

Referee: Ryan Lee

Game Minute: 29^th

Score At Time: 0-0

Incident: Nygren goes down in the box

Outcome: No decision

Evidence: Provided

Yorkshire Whistler Verdict:

IOD: No decision

Nygren breaks through on goal and the keeper slides out to close him down. The keeper appears to make slight contact with the ball as well as catching the Celtic player. The keeper is entitled to block in this manner and I don’t see a clear foul on Nygren in this passage of play.

Verdict: CORRECT decision

Expected Points Outcome: No impact

29/10/25 Hibernian vs The Rangers

Incident 1

Referee: John Beaton

Game Minute: 85^th

Score At Time: 0-1

Incident: Chiawa goes down in the box

Outcome: Penalty to Hibernian

Evidence: Provided

Yorkshire Whistler Verdict:

IOD: Penalty to Hibs

After a Rangers player slips, Chiawa breaks into the box. Barron is caught on the wrong side of his man and stretches with his left leg across the Hibs man. He only succeeds in catching the right foot of Chiawa and a clear foul is committed.

Verdict: CORRECT decision.

Expected Points Outcome: No impact

Summary

My thanks, as always, to the Yorkshire Whistler.

Another quiet few weeks.

As I wrote earlier in the week, the error rate has improved in matches involving Celtic and The Rangers. And, as VAR maturity increases, so less incidents must be referred in the first place. I would take this as a positive in terms of overall standards.

Objectively, Scottish officiating is poor, as UEFA and FIFA assignments indicate.

But we do seem to be in a place where allocation of erroneous calls is, broadly, random. Let’s hope that trend continues, as this is how it should be.

Secondly, I have not included Heart of Midlothian in this analysis. The Gorgie side are clear and deserved leaders in the SPFL. However, they were as much victims of patterns of assistance to The Rangers as any other club in Scotland. This exercise was about surfacing the ingrained partialities of the SFA rather than just measuring who gets the breaks at the top of the table.

The risks in Scotland remain the culture and practices of the SFA, particularly regarding performances involving The Rangers.

Also, we simply lack the comparative data on Heart of Midlothian. Maybe they will be included from next season?

I will continue to review the efficacy of this exercise, and indeed, at some point, the Yorkshire Whistler will say “enough” and that is fair.

For now, The Rangers have been estimated to have been hampered by 1.45 expected points this far.

Celtic leads The Rangers by five points after ten games.

Now, about that Cup Special!