Beaton put under police surveillance, say SFA

Beaton put under police surveillance, say SFAImage source, SNSImage caption, John Beaton was the referee at Fir Park on Wednesday eveningPublishedJust nowThe Scottish FA say referee "John Beaton and his family spent last night at home under police surveillance following a leak of personal details online" and have urged "tolerance and perspective to prevent any further, unthinkable escalation".Beaton has faced criticism following the award of a late penalty, which was converted, in Celtic's 3-2 Wednesday win at Motherwell. The incident at Fir Park, which involved VAR, was the latest in a series of controversies involving decisions by referees as the Scottish Premiership title race reaches its conclusion.Celtic's win kept them within a point of leaders Hearts and those two sides meet at Celtic Park in Saturday's final top-six fixtures."The Scottish FA condemns in the strongest possible terms attempts to compromise the safety of match officials," said the SFA, which organises refereeing in the SPFL."Such vigilantism, motivated by decisions perceived to be right or wrong on a field of play, is a scourge on our national game and we are grateful to Police Scotland for their swift intervention."As we approach what should be an exciting finale to the season, we ask those who have personalised and hyperbolised their opinions, those who have sought the easy way out by attributing defeats to perceived refereeing errors, and those who have approved incendiary statements and posts to reflect on their contribution to creating an environment of intimidation, fear and alarm."'Hysterical media narrative'The SFA cited those they see as responsible for an escalation in tensions."We are also clear, sadly, that this is the inevitable consequence of the heightening criticism, intolerance and scapegoating demonstrated this season by media pundits, supporters, official supporters' groups, clubs, players, manage...