Neil Lennon’s tour of Hampden Park continues today with an appearance in front of the archaic General Purposes Committee.
Fresh from last week’s appearance in front of the Disciplinary Committee- and tomorrow’s appeal against a six match ban- the Celtic boss will be asked to explain his comments following the 3-1 defeat from Rangers in October.
Almost three months on from the match the Celtic boss will be asked to explain the comments below about Willie Collum’s dire performance in that match.
Lennon said: “He has got a lot of questions to answer. I have problems with my team but you have to get the big decisions right. I’ll be asking for an explanation.
“I want to know why McCulloch was still on the pitch, it was blatant obstruction when we were breaking. It was a second yellow and they should have been down to 10 men in the second half.
“And I feel let down on the penalty incident for sure. It’s a big decision. I have seen a replay of the penalty and it looked soft. I’m not sure he saw it and I’m not sure why he has given it.”
Collum’s performance went unpunished and he has since been put in charge of two more Celtic matches.
Last week’s six match ban was unprecedented for an SPL manager appearing before the Disciplinary Committee for the first time.
As ever the SFA don’t publish the number of cases being considered by the General Purposes Committee but there’s no doubt that Celtic will compare any punishment for Lennon with comments made by Peter Houston and Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas.
After losing to Celtic on October 17 Houston couldn’t have come out any stronger in his criticism of Dougie McDonald.
The Scotland assistant manager said: “Celtic created chances but I thought we coped well with anything they threw at us but then Dougie McDonald conspires to try to give a penalty against us.
“It’s not the first penalty that’s been given against us by Dougie. He couldn’t get his finger to the spot quick enough and then he conspires that it’s not a penalty.
“Ki Sung-Yeung went in two minutes later and went down like a sack of tatties. I’ve had players booked for that.”
Two weeks later Fedotovas couldn’t have been any clearer with his thoughts on the SFA in a statement published on the Hearts website.
He said: “In an era where players, managers and clubs are suspended or fined heavily for their actions on the pitch, it will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of every honest employee and supporter of football clubs around the country that match officials could act as deceptively as has been reported.
“It is time that the Scottish FA implements a proper system of accountability otherwise the integrity of our game will be further diluted by future incidents.
“How long might it be before attempts by a referee to verbally engineer a situation to suit his own purposes spills into a referee actively engineering situations through actions rather than words? Only a fool would say ‘That could never happen’.”
Today’s punishments from Hampden will be keenly scrutinised!
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Lennon didn’t ask why Stokes stayed on the pitch after his horrific assault on Papac then? Confirmation bias indeed.
Jake
Stokes was just ‘balancing things out’! Remember Laughatme’s career threatening challenge on Hinkel the season previous?
Anyway, it was not that horrific. He still had both his legs.
The questions Lennon asks are 100% legitimate. He didn’t lose his temper, call the ref all the names under the sun or question his integrity yet he finds himself in front of a panel.
Our refs cannot be wrapped in cotton wool, they need to take fair criticism. Who knows, maybe if they have to do that they’ll learn from it and improve. God knows they need to.
The Refs must know the problem is all down to them. If they called 99% of the incidents correctly, NO club would have a problem, however for some strange reason one club is lucky if they get 30% of the big decisions called correctly.
Saturday is a case in point, why was the Hibs defender not sent off at the penalty. He was last man, it was a clear goal scoring opportunity and the Ref decided it was a foul.
Strangely though the Media have said he got all the big decisions right! Funny that!!!!
Lets hope he gets the same treatment as waaaaaaaaalter ie no case to answer for his comments aimned at Mr murphy
Or what about the General purposes committee’s verdict on waaaaaaaaaaaaalter’s accusation that wullie collum concocted a story re a kenny miller sending off.
Oh wait a minute wallllllllllter wasnt even taken to task over those comments.