Demonisation Of Neil Lennon Part 4

Early this month Stuart McCall left Hampden after being found not guilty of breaching Scottish FA rule 203, which covers offensive, insulting or abusive and calling into question an official’s integrity and aggressive behaviour towards officials.

This was after he was sent to the stand at half time in Motherwell’s 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup when Craig Thomson wrongly awarded Aberdeen a corner which they scored from.

It wasn’t a good week for Thomson. He sent off a Schalke 04 player for a professional foul and awarded FC Twente a penalty after the FC Twente player tripped over his own feet.

McCall said: “For them to stop me doing my job is totally wrong”.

The decision basically called Craig Thomson a liar.

Today our manager was up at Hampden facing charges over comments directed at Willie Collum after the League Cup Final and when he was sent to the stand at Ibrox one week later after an incident in the tunnel.

He was found guilty of both counts. He was in clear breach of Rule 68 as he made comments criticising the performance of a match official and has received a two match ban for this.

The Ibrox tunnel incident comes under the aforementioned Rule 203. Though found guilty the SFA decided that his half game ban from the dugout was sanction enough though their own guidelines state that anyone found guilty of breaking this rule faces a minimum 2 match ban.

“I got called in [to the referee’s room] and he said, ‘you’re not going out’, so he has deprived me of doing my job,” commented Lennon after the game.

Rumours have been abound all week that Calum Murray (Ref), Iain Brines (4th Official) and Wullie Conquer (linesman) and the match delegates reports on the incident didn’t match. The FACT that another 2 game ban wasn’t dished out is conclusive proof of this. Also credible reports have surfaced that the SFA Compliance Officer, Vincent Lunny and Celtic’s QC, Derek Ogg, done a deal after the evidence was heard.

A Celtic statement reads: “ We can confirm that we are satisfied with the fairness and spirit of the hearing and that no appeal will be made against the findings or sanctions.” and for me confirms that the club feel vindicated.

The McCall and Lennon decisions have seen the SFA call the integrity of their own officials into question. I fully expect a strike.

For the second year in a row we have seen clear evidence that officials have lied in connection to decisions made during games involving us.

Personal? Well we have the evidence.