Steven Gerrard was today cleared in his disciplinary case at the SFA, after the panel found the case against him Not Proven. It was brought after his comments in the aftermath of the match with Dundee Utd, where he suggested that had Morelos been on the edge of a challenge like the one which drew one of the Utd players a yellow that he’d been shown a red.
Now, he said that. The words are on record. But the SFA failed to prove their case?
Explain to me exactly how that works?
Sevco’s defence is ridiculous, and that it worked is even more so.
It’s like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar and claiming that there’s no proof you were trying to steal cookies and that being accepted.
But what else was your hand doing in the cookie jar? Giving them a stir? Testing the temperature? Gerrard’s comments brought the game into disrepute, but this verdict – this farcical verdict – is what really trashes its reputation further.
That there’s even such a thing as a Not Proven verdict in the SFA disciplinary system is a joke. It’s not the first time Sevco has gotten off with it either. It’s not the first time Gerrard has made these kind of remarks; he was alleging bias after his first game in the job and nobody batted an eyelid. I actually marvelled when this charge was filed that the SFA had done it because he’s said much worse without them pulling him in … this verdict is a mockery of the system though.
This woeful fudging has no direct impact on our club, but really; is Celtic happy with a system which produces such perverse results time and again? We must be because we do precious little about it. That this is how it works at the SFA is deeply embarrassing to those of us who watch the game; those who are involved in it could sort this out.
What in God’s name are they doing allowing this to go on? What in God’s name are they playing at in not making radical changes to the way things are done?
All tonight does is make the whole game in Scotland into a laughing stock. Gerrard made his remarks live in front of the broadcasters; this was about as open and shut as it gets, and if the governing body has set up a system which cannot even get a case like this across the line and into a suspension then the whole system itself is a sham.
The way Scottish football constantly produces this sort of low comedy really is mortifying.
When are the people in charge of our clubs – and our club in particular –going to get their act together here and stop these kind of verdicts from sullying the reputation of the sport?
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