Ronny Deila has expressed his anger at the seven match suspension issued to Alexasandar Tonev for an alleged racist comment at Aberdeen’s Shay Logan.
The player will lodge his appeal against the ban early next week and is said to be devastated by the ban after an SFA hearing.
Tonev was joined at the hearing by John Collins and an interpreter but is expected to have some heavyweight legal support for his appeal as he attempts to overturn a verdict that could dog the remainder of his career.
The Bulgarian hasn’t made much of an impact at Celtic but that hasn’t prevented Deila from giving his full backing to a player under suspicion.
“”We will appeal because we don’t feel it is right,” the Celtic boss told BBC Radio Scotland. ” We believe Aleks, this is word against word.
“We are very disappointed, h e is very disappointed and we are going to support him, it’s a tough accusation. It can ruin his career and his reputation. We believe him and we’re going to fight for him.”
Tonev joined Celtic on a season long loan from Aston Villa who have also voiced their concern about the ban.
After the SFA announced the suspension Celtic stated: “Racism has no place in football and as a Club for all people, Celtic absolutely abhors racism of any kind.
“This was a very unfortunate case, but the Club has accepted Aleksandar’s explanation that he did not say the words that were alleged to have been said and that he is not a racist.
“We are, therefore, very disappointed by the outcome today and can confirm that Aleksandar will be appealing this decision.”
