The SFA have admitted that one of their officials did see the Josh Meekings handball incident against Celtic.
Yesterday the Judicial Panel upheld the Inverness Caley Thistle players’ appeal against a one match suspension throwing confusion over the purpose of the Compliance Officer..
Today, shortly after 12 noon the SFA issued an explanation for the decision of the appeal panel, it read: “Further to the judicial panel hearing yesterday involving Josh Meekings, the panel considered initial submissions from Mr Meekings’ solicitor. In particular it was argued by him that under protocol 13.4.1.1 the judicial panel was not entitled to determine the matter.
“The panel considered that as the incident (but not the actual alleged sending-off offence of handball) had been seen by one or more of the officials it was not entitled to consider the matter further. It accordingly dismissed the complaint without any consideration of the merits of the incident or the decision arrived at by the referee.”
The admission that an official witnessed the handball incident adds further confusion to the situation.
It is believed that the Compliance Officer is only able to raise a case for incidents that aren’t covered in the referee’s match report. By admitting that an official witnessed the incident the Notice of Complaint shouldn’t have been issued.
If an official witnessed the incident then Celtic should have been given that information rather than having to go public with their letter to the SFA.
Four days after requesting detail on the incident, which was witnessed by 90% of the fans in the stadium, Celtic have yet to receive an explanation from the SFA.
