East Stirling boss John Coughlan was astonished when Ryan Frances got hit with a 14 game ban after watching Madjid Bougherra get a warning for a similar incident.
Last season Bougherra emerged from an SFA hearing full of smiles after picking up a one match Scottish Cup suspension for twice manhandling Calum Murray during Rangers’ 1-0 Scottish Cup defeat from Celtic.
With no intention of staying on at Rangers this season the Algerian got off Scot free in an incident viewed by millions throughout the UK.
Frances got involved in a similar incident during a Scottish Cup tie with Buckie Thistle and has felt the full force of the SFA’s disciplinary system and will be out of football until well into the new year after being hit with a 14 match ban.
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‘Shire boss Coughlin said: “The punishment seems excessive. There is a lack of balance in the decisions handed out to Rangers and East Stirling.
“I’ve seen the DVD of the incident and I’ll be honest, it doesn’t make for good viewing.
“But everyone who has seen it has said it’s similar to the way Bougherra reacted when he was sent off against Celtic. I remember watching it on TV at the time and I would have to agree.
“I don’t know who sat on this disciplinary panel compared to that one, but as a club we’ll accept the punishment because we don’t condone what Ryan did. I thought he would get something like a six-game ban.”
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They’ll put the difference down to their new disciplinary procedures.
It doesn’t stand up to compare how they dealt with incidents last season to how they do now as they had an overhaul of the system.
They had the same system when Lennon was clobbered for the same thing as a player though.
True and that’s one example we could use that they couldn’t use the excuse of new procedures to protect themselves.
new open procedure system my arse , sfa crooked as ever !!!!!
Disgusting and embarrassing. But worst of all, not surprising.
The Celtic Sanctum
You should be renamed The Celtic Sanitorium if you believe that!
Believe what? It’s fact they changed their procedures and it’s fact they can easily use that to explain the difference between both incidents.
That doesn’t mean it’s right or fair, it’s just what they’ll do. It’s an easy out for them.
Or the Celtic Rectum might be more apt
Charming, see my above post. I’m not defending them, just pointing out the obvious.
Big Story, Rangers treated different to everybody else! How long will it go on?
Just more evidence of Rearangers bias within the SPL and SFA
Exactly, why do people go on about there being no “proof” of bias, it’s proved nearly every match day.
Scoland will never change till they kick all the bigots out off power But dont hold your breth ThomasHaverstock
haha
thought that was a REAL scoreline there for a second, Joe
hoping for that post-administration 🙂