Compare the punishments time at the SFA
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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