Misleading comments- SFA hit back at Ibrox whataboutery over John Brown fine

The SFA has released a statement in response to the paranoid hysteria from Ibrox over a £3,000 fine issued to the club for comments made by John Brown.

It is all about playing to the gallery with the club formed by Charles Green in 2012, feeding into the paranoia with suggestions of whataboutery.

That theme is picked up by the loyal messengers eager to push the view that their club is dealt with differently by the football authorities.

That is certainly the case but not as they like to perceive it.

In 2012 the SFA set up and signed off the Five Way Agreement, some might call it the Six Way Agreement, which gave Green’s club their own set of rules.

Since then there has been plenty of posturing and statements on both sides but the bottom line is that the SFA will never take any meaningful action against their newest members for fear of details of the 2012 Five Way Agreement becoming public.

Following the reaction to the £3,000 fine the SFA announced:

We note Rangers’ response to the determination of a recent independent Judicial Panel Tribunal. In the interests of accuracy, we wish to address some of the misleading comments contained therein:

The sanction imposed by an independent panel was entirely in keeping with the application of the rules. The most recent and relevant example of a similar breach, the sanction imposed on Richard Foster of Motherwell FC for comments of a similar nature in the media, attests to that.

Furthermore, to address the comments regarding “rationale behind differing outcomes”, we wish to point to the fact that investigations were undertaken in previous cases outlined and that the Compliance Officers of the time saw fit to issue a censure by way of warning letter for potential breaches deemed insufficiently serious to be progressed to a Notice of Complaint.

This system of proportionality has been adopted since the inception of the Judicial Panel Protocol in 2011. Indeed, such discretion was exercised last season when the Compliance Officer wrote to the club to warn of the future conduct of players following matters involving Vaclav Cerny, Dujon Sterling and Mohamed Diomande.

We also note that Rangers intend to contact the association to seek clarity on the Judicial Panel Protocol and its application. The club is, in fact, already represented on the JPP Working Group.

We have requested written reasons from the panel chair involved in the tribunal and in the interests of transparency will publish in due course.

JPP Rule 38 was introduced in response to the referee strike of 2010, when match officials campaigned for greater protection after enduring sustained personal criticism from clubs and fans. Ahead of a new season, we remind clubs of their responsibilities in this regard.

There is unlikely to be anything further on the issue made public with both parties seen to have made their views known through summer statements.

Ibrox fans are currently on a two year suspended sentence from UEFA due to their racists chants and actions, the SFA has never commented on, charged or taken action against either Ibrox clubs on this matter which is effectively giving their approval to the weekly hate-fests.