Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan has denied deceiving foreign referees over the reasons why they were needed at the weekend. SPL matches were officiated by overseas officials to cover a strike in Scotland as regional officials were unhappy with recent abuse.

Some foreign officials travelled to Scotland only to make a swift U-turn after discovering the actual nature of the referees' strike.

Regan insists the country's respective associations knew why Scottish officials were on strike and that the SFA cannot be blamed for them not disseminating the appropriate information.

"We sent out a request and made it very clear there was likely to be a withdrawal of services by Scottish refs over the fact they had received abuse," explained Regan.

"Whether the respective associations have sent that message down to individual referees in every case we will never know.

"Certain associations felt they were going to withdraw their services. They did that and that is their choice. Others chose to come and support us."