Douglas McDonald (born 8 October 1965) is a former FIFA International soccer referee and Scottish Category 1 referee. McDonald is a transport planner by profession, and currently is Director of Transport for Stantec in Scotland. He is still also involved in football, working as a Referee Development Advisor in Youth and Junior football.

Refereeing career

McDonald's refereeing career spanned 29 years; 14 years from 1997 as a Category 1 referee and 11 years from 2000 as a FIFA international referee until his retirement in 2010. His first Category 1 match was Berwick Rangers v Montrose in August 1997. McDonald refereed two Scottish Cup Finals, the 2006 match between Hearts and Gretna, and the 2010 match between Dundee United and Ross County. He also took charge of two League Cup Finals; the 2007 Final between Hibernian and

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, and the 2009 Final between

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. McDonald refereed 221

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

games, five

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

matches, three Edinburgh Derbies, two Dundee Derbies and over 100 international matches. In addition to his four senior national cup finals, he also refereed three League Cup Semi-Finals (in 2005 between Motherwell and Hearts, in 2006 between Dunfermline Athletic and Livingston and in 2010 between Rangers and St Johnstone) and three Scottish Cup Semi-Finals (in 2003 between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee, in 2008 between St Johnstone and Rangers and in 2009 between Falkirk and Dunfermline Athletic. In 2004, he was also Fourth Official at the Dunfermline Athletic v Celtic Scottish Cup Final. McDonald was also the referee at a win by Inverness Caledonian Thistle over Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 2000 which prompted the headline in '' The Sun'' - "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic are Atrocious". McDonald also refereed the 2002 Scottish Qualifying Cup Final (North) between Cove Rangers and Keith; the 1999 SFA Youth Cup Final between Celtic and Dundee and the 1997 Reserve League Cup Final between Hearts and Aberdeen. McDonald also had a successful international career. He was twice Fourth Official at the Final of the prestigious Dallas Cup and he also refereed the 2009 Final between

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

and Vancouver Whitecaps. He was also involved in the inaugural experiments for the use of additional referees behind the goal, operating at one of the initial experiment tournaments in Cyprus in 2009 and in the 2009/2010 Europa League experiments where he refereed several group matches. McDonald refereed at the inaugural UEFA Regions Cup Final tournament in Venice in 1999 where he was Fourth Official at the Final; at the UEFA U16 Championship Finals in Israel in 2000; and at the UEFA U19 Championship Finals in Switzerland in 2004. McDonald retired as a Category 1 referee on 29 November 2010, and since 2013 he has been operating as a referee development advisor in youth and junior football.

Dundee United v Celtic penalty

During a

match on 17 October 2010 between Dundee United and

, McDonald awarded a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

to Celtic in the 70th minute, but later reversed the decision after consulting one of the assistant referees. The incident became the subject of an investigation. McDonald was censured by the SFA Referee Committee for lying in his post-match report about the circumstances surrounding his decision not to award the penalty kick. The assistant referee involved was given a lifetime ban. In July 2014, several links to articles relating to the penalty incident at Dundee United were removed from

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

's search results under the

EU Court of Justice The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (french: Cour de justice de l'Union européenne or "''CJUE''"; Latin: Curia) is the judicial branch of the European Union (EU). Seated in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg ...

's Right to be forgotten ruling. Following complaints about the decision, Google restored its links to articles in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper about McDonald. The attempt to have the links removed drew more attention to the matter, and was seen as an example of the

Streisand effect Attempts to hide, remove, or censor information often have the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information via the Internet. This is called the Streisand effect. It is named after American singer and actress Barbra Streis ...

Professional career

McDonald is a transport planner by profession, having worked at MVA Consultancy (now SYSTRA) for 25 years. In May 2014 he joined Peter Brett Associates (now Stantec) as their Director of Transport in Scotland.

References

External links

Dougie McDonald
Soccerbase {{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Dougie 1965 births Living people Scottish football referees Scottish Football League referees Scottish Premier League referees