Scottish FIFA referee John Beaton speaks about the challenges he’s had to overcome along with special moments in his career so far.
- After a Rangers v Celtic match in 2018, you had a challenging time to go through. What was that experience like and how did you cope with it?
- It was a tough time for me and had a massive impact. It was probably a turning point in terms of seeing the scrutiny that we are put under in games like that. The pressure on those games is incredible and it’s such a unique rivalry. It’s about survival for the referees, players and managers. You have to manage your way through those games as best as possible. The feeling immediately after the match was that it had gone well for us a refereeing team. But clearly the media fallout was such that the perception of my performance had very quickly changed. I was due to referee Ayr United v Falkirk at the height of the difficult period and I remember speaking to John Fleming, the Head of Refereeing at the time, who said I could have the weekend off. I said no to that offer as I felt it was really important for the younger guys coming through that they saw me fulfilling that appointment. It was important to do the game and show I wasn’t going to lie down to the criticism. I don’t remember anything about the game at Somerset Park, it was just about getting through the 90 minutes. I was glad I did it. It was a while before I was back involved with either of the teams, but I took charge of the Aberdeen v Celtic match in April 2019, that saw Celtic clinch the league title. That was a real show of faith from the Scottish FA and a boost for me personally to be appointed to the match and to do well in it. Before that period in my career, there had been a real separation between my private life and being a referee. All of a sudden, I had a situation where they merged into one. That will never go away now, but like everything in football, things move on and I’ve refereed both Celtic and Rangers multiple times since with no issues.
- Referees are not immune to mental health issues and being affected by what is shouted at them from the stands or on social media. How important is that message?
- The way I see it is that they are not shouting at me as a person, it is just a figure in the middle of the park. I could be wrong about that though. The referee is seen as a person that you can just shout abuse at and we just need to deal with it. To be honest you sign up for that when you become a referee and you expect boos from the crowds at certain times. I think it’s important the younger referees see that we have to deal with the mental health side of things and set an example for them coming through. They can come and speak to the more experienced ones. I’ve never not had anyone I could speak to. There’s always someone. You can get really down about things if you’ve made a mistake on the Saturday and then you’re waiting for Sportscene on the Sunday for people to criticize you. I’ve got better with that though and find ways to cope, usually by getting back on the horse and refereeing other games.
- In what way does refereeing also improve your mental health?
- It’s so easy to focus on the negatives and think ‘poor me, people are shouting at me’ but we get an opportunity to go to some of the best stadiums in the world to referee and it’s a brilliant job. I’ve worked in the Nou Camp, Bernabeu and Allianz Arena in front of thousands of people, made good decisions and they’ve all been brilliant experiences. The dream is that no-one speaks about the referee after the 90 minutes and 9/10 that happens. People just remember you for your mistakes. One of my first high-profile matches was between Kilmarnock v Hibernian in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, in 2013, and it was my first big game on TV. I think Hibs won 4-2 and Leigh Griffiths scored a hat-trick. I had three massive decisions to make and they were all right. It catapulted my career and I still look back on it as it’s nice to remind yourself of the good moments. People focus on your negatives but for me, it’s good to look at the positives.
- What’s been the most memorable moment of your career so far?
- I was an Additional Assistant Referee with Willie Collum in Barcelona, against Olympiakos a few years ago, which was an incredible experience. During the match I spotted Gerard Piqué scoring a goal with his hand. I shouted to Willie and we decided it was a yellow card but we both then realized he’d already been booked. It suddenly dawned on us that we were going to send off the Barcelona captain in the Nou Camp, which was quite a moment. At half-time we had Messi and Iniesta saying ‘you’ve made an error’ and Willie turned to me and said ‘you better be right here’. My response was ‘it was no more than 50/50 so we’ll need to look at the replay’. Thankfully it was the right decision and those are the things you look back on. What made it more intense was that days after the game, Pique was the poster boy for the Catalan independence referendum. It that had been the wrong decision, it would have had a massive impact on my career.
Source: SFA
