UEFA have kicked Astana’s bid to ban Leigh Griffiths into touch.
The Celtic striker was booked shortly before scoring the equaliser in Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier with the Kazak champions looking for further punishment.
Referee Paolo Mazzoleni had a clear view of the incident with UEFA content with the original punishment of a yellow card which will allow Griffiths to lead the line in next week’s return leg.
According to The Sun UEFA issued a statement that said: “The incident concerns a factual decision of the referee, therefore no protest can be lodged.”
Yesterday Astana took to social media to highlight the incident which certainly had the desired effect.
Strangely Kazak TV were unable to show a single replay of the first half incident when Moussa Dembele was sent crashing to the ground inside the Astana penalty box.
Highlighting the Griffiths incident Astana assistant Gregory Babayan said: “Last year, our player Patrick Twumasi got a six-game suspension for an incident against HJK and this one was even more pronounced.
“We’ve watched the incident from multiple angles and it was clearly visible, with the referee close to it.
“In our opinion, this episode clearly deserves the most severe punishment — removal from the field.
“If he had shown the red card, we would have got the result as Griffiths was the player who scored for Celtic.”
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