Is there any sort of consistency at the SFA when it comes to disciplinary matters?
Yesterday the secretive General Purposes Committee handed out a £5,000 suspended sentence to Neil Lennon for his after-match comments against Hearts in November.
The Celtic boss was sent from the touchline by Craig Thompson after watching his side being denied a clear penalty when Ryan Stevenson handled the ball in the Hearts penalty box.
Less than a month earlier Lennon had been lied to by Dougie McDonald after Celtic’s 2-1 win at Dundee United with the hoops boss justifiably angered by being on the wrong end of another refereeing mistake.
“Craig Thomson is meant to be one of the best referees in the country,” Lennon said. “It doesn’t say much for referees if that’s the case.”
Asked if he’d be looking for an explanation over the non-penalty decision he added: “They will probably have their story ready already.”
The rights and wrongs of that case are open to debate but compared to the much harsher criticism of officials at the same time it seems that the General Purposes Committee are very selective about the cases that they look into.
On the same day as McDonald was lying to Lennon Dundee United boss Peter Houston delivered a much more critical assessment of the referee as well as an opposing player.
The Scotland No.2 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.”
No announcement has been as to whether Houston has been punished for his comments.
Most critical of all however was a statement from the Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas which criticised virtually every aspect of the Scottish game and also hinted at something more sinister.
On the day that Steven Craven revealed what went on at the Dundee United-Celtic match the Tynecastle director launched a scathing attack on the SFA.
Fedotovas 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’.”
Yesterday’s General Purposes Committee meeting ended with an announcement about Lennon’s suspended punishment.
With no censure or reprimand for Houston or Fedotovas the Celtic manager will be wondering exactly when the Scottish FA will implement a proper system of accountability otherwise the integrity of the game will be further diluted by future incidents, as the Hearts director might put it.
Alan Thompson praises pigeon chaser Izaguirre.
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I’ve always been a firm believer that a lot of my fellow hoops supporters are slightly paranoid. This story,however, for me is the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m not saying I’m jumping on the paranoid band wagon, but surely the lack of punishments on other managers etc compared to what Neil is having to deal with says it all.
Changing my name to paranoid patman.
Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
We had the man with no surname giving the ref pelters the other week (a guy who must have just about the worst disiplinary record in the league). No action taken.
We had Terry Bugner ripping into the ref after Sundays game. Again, No action taken.
There are many such outbursts, far worse than Lenny, by many spl managers totally ignored by the sfa, McPherson and jefferies spring to mind.
Why?
Because the laptop loyalists are still dictating to the Sectarian Football Association who should receive sfa sanctions and who should not.
They even supply the necessary evidence……or not!
Britney Spiers asking Thommo where “Neil” was after the ICT game, obviously unable to conceal the fact he was champing at the bit to get tore in?
Someone should be as straight forward with him and ask him if he was at the San Siro Inter game in 2005!!
Ps. I see the coppers will be talking to both teams before the Cup final.
Why?
What reason do they have to talk to the Celtic team?
What did ANY Celtic player do wrong during the huns last leathering?
Yet again the huns SHAME themselves and the sport and the dutiful lickspittles in the LL trot out their usual ‘O** F***’ card, telling the world that one’s as bad as the other, when infact it was doofy that was out of control, assaulting a Celtic physio, screaming into the Celtic dug-out and even taking on stewards and police after recieving a red card whilst trying to wind-up whatever huns were left in CP, it was bougherra who manhandled the ref with impunity through-out the game, and wee fat sally who after being physically held back at least twice from aggressively approching the Celtic dug-out, reacted in a threatening way to Lenny for offering his hand after the game.
Doofy………NO ACTION TAKEN.
Bougherra…..NO ACTION TAKEN.
McMoist……A 2 match ban, which he’s appealling on the grounds that he was only defending the action of doofy and bougherra as stated above, and honestly believes he done nothing wrong!!
The sfa follow follow the laptop loyalists agenda to the letter!
well said max
Just because you aren’t aware of any other punishments for managers who are dealt with by the General Purposes Committee doesn’t mean they are not dealt with. You are paranoid. There is no SFA agenda against Celtic. Did you know the SFA rules are actually approved by all SFA clubs? Did you know a member of the Celtic staff is on the SFA disciniary committee and sits on cases every month involving other clubs? Funny that, eh? Maybe Neil Lennon’s behaviour is the problem and not the SFA and “their” rules. Ever considered that? PS. I’m a Celtic fan. But you’ll probably not believe that. Just like you can’t possibly believe the SFA is impartial.
I find it amazing that Lenny copped a fine for saying what he said at Tynecastle after being lied to by “dougie dougie” yet Terry Butcher gets away with threatening to smash a bottle of red wine over a referees head !!! only in scotland .
You’re right ian, it’s not an sfa ‘agenda’ against Celtic, it runs much deeper than that.
I see Strathclydes finest have re-arranged todays Republican march from it’s normal muster point, Elder Park Govan, because there has been trouble in the past when it passes by Lorne St, the home of the orange order in Govan (they don’t do irony).
So were does it start now?
Outside ‘The Stanley’ bar in Stanley St, the only Celtic pub in the heart of Kining Park hunland.
The owner doesn’t want it there, and his staff are all qiting their jobs because of death threats on the net and threats to ‘fire bomb’ the bar itself if the plans are seen through.
The Stanley isn’t some wild republican pub, it’s wee Celtic bar for some older sections of the support who use it as the only real non-hun pub in the area.
Why would the coppers move the muster point to such a place?
There’s no way you can tell me they don’t know the implications and the possible outcome of such a move.
Why would they do this?
What possible reason would they have to move such a march, that the people in The Stanley want nothing to do with, to the only Celtic bar in the area for miles?
I’ll let you think about that yourself ian.
Maybe Strathclydes finest are the ones that need sitting down and spoken to concerning behaviour and sectarianism as a whole, because either they have moved this parade to its new spot in total ignorance as to the prospective repercussions or they know full well and are quite prepared to risk peoples lives for reasons known only to themselves!
I don’t know which is worse!
Ps. Strathclyde police are fully aware of the bomb and death threats to the bar and staff and are unwilling to move it to any of the many other locations suggested.