Hibs have forced the SFA into an embarassing u-turn over the Garry O’Connor simulation case.
On Monday the SFA announced that the striker would serve a two match ban for simulation during last week’s match against St Johnstone for an incident that led to Hibs being awarded a penalty.
That decision broke new ground for the new disciplinary procedures and gave the Compliance Officer the authority to over rule decisions made by referees. Until then it was thought that the Compliance Officer only acted in cases where an incident had been missed by the match referee.
Hibs immediately appealed against O’Connor’s ban with the SFA admitting that the decision they had arrived at on Monday was wrong!
In a short statement tonight the SFA noted that: “The Fast Track Tribunal determined that the player was fouled and no simulation occurred.”
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Haha, what a complete farce this has been
what a complete farce this has been
A paranoid person might believe the reason for this u-turn was the SFA’s fear of having to punish players from a certain club, a club that seems to benefit hugely from players diving and the referees who seem oblivious to even the most extravagant of swan dives.
Unrelated but serious question; Why on Earth are Rangers supporters against this new “offended” legislation when it is so BLATANTLY obvious it’s tailored to criminalise Celtic supporters? Honestly i can’t work it out, am i missing something here or what?
Thus proving there are still issues with the SFA setup.
The compliance officer was right, Garry O’Connor DID indeed dive. There’s absolutely no doubt about this fact, because Billy Brown – Hibs assistant manager – admitted that this was the case on BBC’s Sportscene on Sunday night.
So how can the SFA’s Fast Track Tribunal then overturn the ruling that it was a dive? On what basis? They’ve deemed that it was indeed a foul? That wasn’t the question. The question was whether it was a dive or not! You can still dive even if it’s a foul – you’re just making the most of the contact. That’s STILL simulation.
Given that Graham Stack also got away with a similar incident to the Steven Naismith elbow in the game against Rangers (something which was also reviewed after the fact) I have to wonder just how much influence Rod Petrie has at the SFA. That’s two decisions in the same week.