• Portuguese officials arrived in Scotland but left tonight • Polish officials had already backtracked on their plans

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Scottish Premier League's chief executive Neil Doncaster insisted tonight that its full fixture card will go ahead this weekend, despite Portuguese referees performing a dramatic U-turn at Glasgow airport.

To round off yet another day of high farce in this saga, the officials from Portugal – brought in to cover in part a strike by Scotland's referees – headed straight for departures almost instantly on arriving in Glasgow.

Nobody at the Scottish Football Association was able to clarify what arrangements are now in place since the Portuguese affair threw its rescue plans into further chaos. Two of their referees, Cosme Machado and João Ferreira, had been scheduled to officiate Hibernian v St Johnstone and Motherwell v Hearts respectively.

Doncaster, though, had been informed after seeking further clarification from the SFA this evening that matches would still go ahead.

Earlier today, Polish referees had backtracked on their plan to take charge of Scottish matches. Referees from Luxemburg, Malta and Israel remain at this juncture to take charge of Scotland's eight remaining fixtures – six of them SPL games – over the weekend.

There is a strong possibility that one of the others, Beith's Scottish Cup replay against Airdrie United, could be postponed after a morning pitch inspection in any case with freezing weather forecast.

Luxemburg's Fifa-listed official Alain Hamer will cover both halves of the Old Firm by overseeing Celtic v Inverness tomorrow and Rangers' visit to Dundee United on Sunday, barring any further changes of heart.