Jackie McNamara is set to appeal against his SFA touchline ban and take his place in the Ibrox dug-out tomororow.
Yesterday the SFA hit the Dundee United boss with a five match touchline ban for a touchline confrontation with St Johnstone’s Tommy Wright on March 12.
The first of those matches would be at Ibrox tomorrow for the Scottish Cup semi-final with Sevco with an appeal expected to arrive at Hampden later today which will put the ban on hold.
Not content with staging the match at Ibrox and attempting to minimise United’s ticket allocation the SFA decided to host the hearing 48 hours before a semi-final match for an incident that occurred FIVE matches ago.
In the matches since his confrontation with Wright McNamara hasn’t once been in trouble with another manager or official.
Rather than attend yesterday’s hearing the Tannadice boss took his players training with an appeal expected to arrive at Hampden later today.
“I would like to have attended the hearing in person and asked for it to be held over until the afternoon,” McNamara explained.
“I felt it was impossible for me as United manager to miss our training two days ahead of a Scottish Cup semi-final.
“I am obviously disappointed with this decision. I will be discussing the matter with the club and we will consider whether or not to appeal it.”
A statement from United said: “The club is disappointed at this outcome.”
It seems incredible that the SFA can announce semi-final venue’s six months in advance yet need to wait a month before charging a manager for a touchline indiscretion.
Stewart Regan and his cronies like to boast about their new streamlined organisation but clearly some matters of justice still need to be addressed.
Despite ticket prices starting at just £15 and the opportunity to watch their club play a semi-final on home territory over 3,000 tickets for Sevco fans remained unsold at Ibrox yesterday.
Bobbie Madden will referee tomorrow’s match with John Beaton, who has already refereed three Sevco Scottish Cup matches this season listed as an additional assistant to help Madden to the right decisions.
