arrived at Glasgow Airport. The withdrawals led to the last remaining Division One game being called off, and two of three Scottish Cup replays also being called off, and cast doubt over cover for the remaining fixtures. Scottish broadcaster STV claimed the Polish referees pulled out after they realised they were providing cover for striking referees, having initially believed they were participating in an exchange programme. On the eve of the strike, the Israeli FA stated it might not have sent referees had it been given the full story behind the request by the SFA, while the Luxembourg FA stated they had not been given the reasons behind the SFA's request, but that they had been following the dispute on the internet. The SFA published the names of the referees appointed for the weekend fixtures on Friday 26 November, showing that the matches would be refereed by officials from Malta, Israel, Portugal and Luxembourg. These appointments were thrown into confusion, however, when the Portuguese officials returned home soon after arriving at Glasgow Airport. The Portuguese referees had been due to officiate the matches at Hibernian on Saturday and Motherwell on Sunday. Adverse weather conditions also affected the scheduled matches. Two of the Scottish Cup replays failed a Friday pitch inspection after the time of the Polish withdrawal, with the last one called off on Saturday morning due to overnight snow. The latter postponement opened a possibility for the SFA to plug the gap caused by the departure of the Portuguese officials. The Maltese officials were reassigned to cover the match between Hibernian and St Johnstone. A set of Israeli officials were given the scheduled match between Motherwell and Hearts, which was postponed on Sunday morning due to deteriorating weather conditions. The SFL also postponed the 2010 Scottish Challenge Cup Final due to those conditions. Alain Hamer had been due to referee the match between Dundee United and Rangers on Sunday, having controlled the match between Celtic and Inverness on Saturday, but the game was called off after a Sunday morning pitch inspection. One of the Israeli officials, Eli Hacmon, commented after refereeing the match between Kilmarnock and Aberdeen that no-one had explained to him why the referees were on strike before he travelled to Scotland. He went on to say that he would not have provided his services if he had known that the Scottish referees had gone on strike