Willie Collum tackles 'insulting' Celtic and Rangers ref conspiracies as he reveals what must be declared

Bullish Willie Collum insists it's INSULTING for referees to face questions over their integrity based on who they could support.

The SFA head of referees has fired back at cynics who have "barraged" by "comments in the west of Scotland towards one club of the other" amid conspiracy theories emerging from some sections of the Celtic and Rangers support. The refereeing supremo fielded a series of questions on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard after releasing VAR audio from a series of controversial flashpoints in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday afternoon - and was sparked into a passionate response following a question over whether then men in the middle should declare who they support before taking charge of a game.

Collum responded: "First off all, referees need to declare an interest. We had a top assistant a couple of years ago and his son was playing for a senior club, even though he was playing for an under-19 club he declared that as an interest. Also, if somebody is working for a company that sponsors a particular club, these are the things we would expect the referee to declare an interest in.

"In terms of a team that somebody might support or a connection with a family member, where do we draw the line? We want to encourage people into refereeing and say you can referee the top games - you can referee the top games. We would put a blocker on that, and I keep saying where do you draw the line?

"If somebody's third relative had a connection somewhere, or had a season ticket to support somebody - what I would say is, and I want to be really honest with people, when you are refereeing at the top level of the game you have a passion for it, you want to achieve well. Refereeing took me places as a young kid that I