Brendan Rodgers says he has no issue with John Beaton refereeing Celtic games in the future, but he doesn’t regret calling the official out by name following his performance from the VAR room in his side’s defeat at the hands of Hearts last weekend.

The Celtic manager repeatedly referenced Beaton in his post-match interviews for the role he played in what Rodgers felt were erroneous and hugely pivotal calls on the day, with Yang Hyun-jun being red carded for a high boot on Alex Cochrane before Tomoki Iwata was penalised for a handball inside the area.

Rodgers was livid at the decisions after the match, and has since been charged by the Scottish FA for his comments on Beaton’s performance, but when asked if he had any regrets about naming the official, Rodgers said: “No. No, we’re all accountable. Everyone knows he was in the VAR. So, it’s not a secret - I haven’t mentioned someone who would never have been known.

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“My point was more that it was someone of that experience who looked at it. John’s been around for a while now - he’s refereed big games. So, I wasn’t calling John out for his name to be out there.

“It was more, ‘This is a top referee managing the game and supposedly a top referee in VAR, under no pressure. But they still got it wrong. That’s the bigger worry for me. That it was two of your top referees.

“We had a great one with Willie Collum the week before [against Motherwell]. There was a shout for the player to be sent off, ‘Have a look at this Willie,’. “He gets a bit of stick, Willie Collum, but do you know what? He ran over, he looked at the screen and he went, ‘No, no, no - it’s not’.

“It didn’t look like a sending off in the game but there was obviously a shout for him to have a look at it. But he ran over, he used his experience and said, ‘No, no. I get what you’re saying but it’s not a sending off.”

It isn’t the first time that Celtic have had issues with Beaton’s officiating, with the referee admitting that the fallout from an Old Firm game at Ibrox he was in charge of during Rodgers’ first spell in Scotland ‘changed his life’, as he received death threats after failing to send off Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos for any one of a number of offences.

But Rodgers stressed that he isn’t suggesting there is any pattern to Beaton’s handling of Celtic matches, and that he isn’t calling for him not to be able to referee their games going forward.

“It shouldn’t be the case and I’m not saying that - I’m talking about one game here,” he said.

“I’m talking about the game at the weekend. I’m not talking about legacy issues or any other games.

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“John’s refereed games that he’s been really good in. So, I don’t have an issue with that.

“I’m talking about that one game and that was my view of that game. It’s not about anything else.

“Let’s focus on the football and on making good decisions.”