Craig Levein has claimed that it is widespread across football that players will deliberately pick up a booking to choose the match that they are suspended in.
The obsessed Hearts boss was on about his favourite subject yesterday when he accused Scott Brown of getting booked against Kilmarnock to be free of suspension to face Sevco on March 11!
Whether Levein watched the Celtic captain getting booked for his first foul of the game against Kilmarnock isn’t clear but even the most rapid conspiracy theorist would be hard pushed to make a case for it being a deliberate act.
Explaining his twisted thinking Levein told The Scotsman: “I looked at his (Brown, of course) disciplinary record and saw that he was on five bookings, and worked out that getting booked against Kilmarnock means he misses St Johnstone [on 18 February] – but plays against Rangers [on 11 March].
“I kind of put two and two together. And I think I’ve come up with four.
“It happens all the time. And, of course, I did it. If there was a Hibs game coming up and one more booking got you a suspension, you would take the booking, miss a game before that so you could play in the big game. It happens all the time. It happens at international level.
“Managers tell players to get booked. ‘Make sure you get booked in this game – because I want you available for this other match’. I can’t say for sure that’s what happened on this occasion. And I must stress that. But I’m saying it does happen.
“And it is slightly more likely than a referee being influenced by my comments. Because I don’t think they would be influenced.”
Celtic aren’t due to face Hearts again until after the Premiership split should the Jambos make it into the top six.
With both clubs in Scottish Cup action there could be a cup tie to follow with the SFA yet to call the former Scotland boss to account for his continual criticism of the Celtic captain.
