Chris Sutton has labelled the SFA decision to award no retrospective punishment to Rangers keeper Allan McGregor as “appalling”.
McGregor appeared to kick out at Celtic defender Kristoffer Ajer during the Old Firm game on Sunday, and many Hoops fans thought he should have been sent off at the time.
However, as reported in the Daily Record on Tuesday, the SFA panel couldn’t come to a unanimous decision over the incident and the result is that no further action will be taken.
Sutton responded to a fan on Twitter who claimed that the SFA was giving “carte blanche to kick opponents. It is officially allowed.”
Sutton replied saying, “The SFA have nowhere to go with this. Basically advocating players to kick out when they like… What sort of example does this send out to young footballers around the country? This is appalling.”
https://twitter.com/gazzarinho1/status/1036954765522030592
The SFA have nowhere to go with this. Basically advocating players to kick out when they like…. What sort of example does it send out to young footballers around the country??? This is appalling…. https://t.co/7HoYJJW7rF
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) September 4, 2018
OPINION
You’re always guaranteed some drama after an Old Firm game and this time around it’s getting served up by the SFA. This one will obviously polarise people. On the one side you’ve got Celtic fans who think the SFA are biased towards Rangers. They’ll be incensed by this decision. On the other side you’ve got Rangers fans who think the SFA are biased towards Celtic. They’ll say they actually got this decision right although they’re still moaning about Willie Collum not awarding a foul on Ryan Jack in the build-up to the goal. Looking at it from a neutral’s point of view, McGrgeor did seem to kick out and he can consider himself pretty lucky not to face any further action. However, it does bring up an interesting point. If neither Celtic nor Rangers fans are happy with the SFA and the state of its officials, it might not be a sign that they’re balanced, but more that they’re not competent. Something should be done to make sure that decisions and officials in the Scottish game are above reproach and are as professional as they can possibly be. That seems to be lacking at times in the Scottish game.