The pitiful credibility of the SFA suffered another blow today when a Disciplinary Panel decided that a charge that Rob Kiernan had punched an opponent was not proven.
Mark Warburton claimed that people were working to an agenda when Kiernan was handed the retrospective charge which would have ruled him out of back to back matches against Motherwell.
After the incident St Johnstone’s Steven Anderson said: “It was a corner and he caught me in the ribs. Brian Easton saw it as well. It was a clear punch on me.
“You can’t do that in football games. I’m not bothered but if it gets highlighted then he deserves it.
“There was nothing happened before it. I was marking him at a corner and there was a bit of argy bargy – then he punched me. “The referee said he did not see it and you can understand it because there was a lot going on in the box. The linesman has probably not seen it either.”
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Despite having the evidence to produce the charge it seems that the Disciplinary Panel were unable to decide if a punch was delivered or not.
In October 2014 Kris Boyd, then of Sevco, was also given a not proven verdict for headbutting.
In December 2015 the SFA found Alexsandr Tonev guilty on the balance of probability of a racist comment.
To obtain any credibility the not proven verdict needs to be dropped, if a charge is made based on television evidence the panel must deliver a guilty or not guilty verdict.
Motherwell are unlikely to be too upset at having to face the £2m rated defender.
