The real reason Colin Steven stood back and allowed Hibs’ Jack Iredale’s thuggish behaviour at Celtic Park

Celtic’s win against Hibs was a fairly routine one that kept the gap to Rangers at 17 points.

After going behind 1-0 against the run of play, Celtic won the game with ease as Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah ensured the Hoops went in at half-time on the lead.

Reo Hatate sealed Celtic’s win against Hibs as the game passed by without any major controversy. That was until Hibs defender Jack Iredale acting like a cardboard gangster and manhandled Kuhn right in front of referee Colin Stein.

We’ve been sent this footage to watch. I’m sorry, but that is very weak Refereeing to walk away when a confrontation is occurring. Can’t defend that & wont pic.twitter.com/PzK4C7Db94

— The Ref’s View (@TheRefsView) May 11, 2025

The whistler has been getting criticism from some quarters for failing to act when it was all unfolding at Celtic Park however, it appears that there is a reason why Steven didn’t intervene according to former FIFA referee Keith Hackett.

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Keith Hackett tells Colin Steven he misread Celtic Park, but it was not really his fault

Keith Hackett is more known for his Rangers leanings than talking about anything to do with Celtic but here, he shares why Steven didn’t intervene when Iredale grabbed Kuhn by the shirt.

Hackett told Football Insider, “I think the first thing in a situation like that the referee’s got to be blowing the whistle. I do criticise the referee on this one in that I think walking away from it wasn’t the thing.

“He ought to have read it a bit better. He ought to have had cognitive skills to be able to see that this could escalate.

“Sometimes, I know there’s this desire to get to the right position for the next phase of play but I think he ought to have held his position here, blew his whistle really forcibly, because that stops people generally, and I think it could have managed it more effectively.

“The danger here is if you’re a six foot four inch referee it’s easy to get involved with physicality, but the problem you’ve got with that is under modern forms of refereeing – I’d have ploughed in there and separated them like a boxing referee – but under the modern game and era of refereeing there is this view of blow the whistle, view it and then take action.”

So it appears the interpretation of the rules seems to be the issue rather than doing the common sense thing and going in to break the altercation up. But there is more.

Colin Steven ‘done his job’ but could have been more proactive at Celtic Park

Hackett believes that by the letter of the law, Stein did the correct thing by booking both players. However, it appears that the SFA official could, and should, have done more to prevent this from escalating.

Hackett continues, “I think recognising it in the first place before it escalates, holding your position, whistle in mouth from the referee, I know that he’ll receive some coaching advice and he will have learned from this particular incident.

“But the observation [is] he’s walked away from it a little bit, he has. He’s thought that what he awarded is good enough and it hasn’t been.

“The outcome then is where there’s the potential of a match confrontation, a minimum two yellow cards. So in issuing the yellow cards he’s done his job. So in his role he’s done his job.

“What I’m saying is: part of the role of refereeing is the prevention, and he could have prevented it by staying there, blowing the whistle and he might have prevented an escalation that results in a yellow card.”