John Fleming, the Scottish Football Association’s head of refereeing operations, says that only the introduction of video assistant referees will enable officials to weed out the cheats from Scottish football.

A row has been sparked after referee Don Robertson incorrectly awarded a penalty to Ross County in the closing stages of Sunday's game against Celtic, with their forward Alex Schalk diving to the ground in the area despite no contact being made between him and the closest visiting player, Erik Sviatchenko.

With the match live on television, instant replays immediately showed that the decision by referee Robertson was clearly an error, but Fleming refused to criticise the County player for his actions in duping the official.

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Instead, he says that it is time to realise that the game in Scotland is as open to gamesmanship like simulation from players as anywhere else, and he has urged the authorities to give their referees the tools they need to make the right decisions.

“It’s an error from the referee, quite obviously, and it was identified very quickly when you look at the live footage,” Fleming said.

“It’s a good example of where a video assistant referee would clarify the situation very, very quickly.

“It’s simulation by the player. The players will adopt whatever tactics they adopt though, it’s up to my own department to see if we can identify the issues that are deemed to be unfair.

“As [Ross County manager] Jim McIntyre said, maybe the player anticipated contact, but that’s one of the criteria for simulation – the anticipation or initiation of contact. The player anticipated something and he went to ground.

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“From our perspective, we need to make sure that the referee is in a good position to see that, and I’ve got to work with Don and the assistant referee to make sure they are in a good position when the two players come together to identify whether there is contact enough to put a player to ground or not.

“Don was in a good position, but he didn’t get the view he wanted, hence the reason why he still got it wrong and he gave the penalty kick.

“There are things where the video assistant referee will tell us matters of fact. Was it inside or outside the penalty area? Onside or offside? Over the line or not?

“Incidents like yesterday, when you look at the footage, it is clear that it is simulation. So, for an incident as clear-cut as that, then it can be identified by the video assistant referee.”