WILLIE COLLUM will be in charge of Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday.
It will be the whistler’s first Glasgow derby this season with Nick Walsh (twice), John Beaton and Kevin Clancy the match officals in the previous four encounters.
Collum has not been without his controversial moments in his involvements when the Hoops have been playing in this campaign, most notably the league game against Motherwell at Fir Park in November when a Filipe Jota goal was contentiously ruled out.
To be fair to Collum, he took the word of his standside assistant that evening and VAR verified the decision with a judgement that looked far from convincing when pictorial evidence was produced from a camera at the wrong end of the ground.
PRE-MATCH CHAT…Ange Postecoglou talks to referee Willie Collum before the 2-1 league win over Motherwell at Fir Park in November.
Thankfully, it didn’t matter in the end as the visitors won 2-1 with goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda.
Steven McLean will be the VAR assistant on this occasion with Don Robertson as fourth official.
Collum was in charge of new technology when Ange Postecoglou’s men were denied a stonewall penalty-kick in the 64th minute of the Jauary 2 derby at Ibrox.
With the Hoops trailing by a goal, Connor Goldson clearly used both hands to deflect a close-range shot from Carl Starfelt.
Match official Beaton ignored the flashpoint incident and, remarkably, Collum, in front of the multi screens in the Glasgow studio, did not act on a clear and obvious error by the referee.
A goal two minutes from time by Kyogo gave the visitors a deserved draw.
