Video: The Kyogo Souttar incident that the SFA Compliance Officer can’t ignore
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Heart of Midlothian - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - December 2, 2021 Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi looks at his stomach after clashing with Heart of Midlothian's John Souttar Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
The Hearts v Celtic match wasn’t short on incidents as an NGRY Robbie Neilson and an even angrier Kris Boyd highlighted last night.
A marginal potential offside call at the Celtic goal has dominated the post-match discussions but fresh evidence has emerged of an incident that deserves further investigation.
Some dramatic pictures did emerge of Kyogo falling back but no still image will ever tell the truth about an incident.
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— Parl Van Kilkinghorst ?? (@ParlKilkington1) December 2, 2021
As Josip Juranovic shot over the bar John Souttar turned his attention to the Celtic goalscorer, inside the six yard box with the ball out of play.
The video clip appears to show the Hearts defender grabbing or pinching Kyogo in the stomach for a few seconds, forcing the striker to fall to the ground.
An image of Kyogo showed marking on his stomach, it could be entirely unrelated but after a low key start to the season it might be time for the SFA Compliance Officer to step in or better still accelerate the implementation of VAR.