The Scottish Football Association have suffered a huge blow ahead of the weekend’s matches after Polish officials performed a u-turn and decided against officiating in matches at the weekend.
With Scottish referees on strike this weekend, the SFA had drafted in officials from Poland, Portugal and Israel in order to ensure Scottish Premier League (SPL) matches and the Challenge Cup final went ahead.
On Thursday, the league confirmed all six SPL matches this weekend would go ahead, but they will now have to arrange additional cover after Polish officials withdrew.
The Polish FA have confirmed their officials, which include Hubert Siejewicz, Pawel Gil and Marcin Borski, are now needed for domestic matters.
“We will not be sending our referees to Scotland tomorrow because they are needed for our domestic games,” confirmed Poland’s FA in a statement.
“We did confirm to the SFA yesterday that we would be sending a team of 12 officials but that is no longer the case. Our domestic games take place today [Friday], tomorrow [Saturday] and Sunday.”
It now remains to been seen whether all six SPL fixtures will still be able to go ahead as the SFA attempts to find additional cover.
Officials are unhappy at the amount of recent public criticism and pressure and feel their personal safety is at threat on and off the pitch.
