Peter Lawwell dismisses Bilbao incident as ridiculous
During the first half of the friendly match referee Iturralde Gonzale ordered the Celtic boss from the dug out after disputing a free-kick given against Ryan Conroy.
That incident came in the middle of a touchline ban from the SFA but Lawwell believes that there is no need for the board to come down heavily on their manager.
He said: “What happened in Bilbao was a ridiculous event and people have recognised it as such. There was a rumour before the weekend we had spoken to Neil, but that has not happened.
“The guy is intelligent and knows himself, he doesn’t have to be told. Neil recognises what is expected of him, after the Rangers game he apologised.”
On Friday the SFA dropped their threat to impose consecutive touchline bans on Neil Lennon after Celtic had highlighted that there was no provision in the rule book to do so.
Despite the perception put about by others that Celtic are at war with the SFA Lawwell insists that that is not the case.
He added: “In terms of relationship with the SFA we are really encouraged by Stewart Regan’s initiatives. We hope he does make progress and support him 100%.
“There is no ‘SFA war’ or ‘SFA brawl’ with Celtic. It’s just basically circumstances and practicalities. There is no general war. We wish Stewart all the best. We think he is making progress and we would like to see the benefit of that going forward.”
“In terms of the touchline ban we felt it was a black and white decision. As per our statement on Friday.
“We would have preferred not going to the law or involving a lawyer but when we felt that our interpretation was not being understood or accepted then clearly you have to take it that next step.”
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