Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has given his opinion about whether Scott Brown deserved to get sent off against Kilmarnock in their recent Premiership game.
Halsey was recently talking exclusively to This Is Futbol and the former Premier League referee focused on Scott Brown and his elbow on Kilmarnock’s Aaron Tshibola. Brown stayed on the pitch at Rugby Park and went on to score Celtic’s opening goal in the first half. The midfielder also ended up getting an assist in the game as the Hoops ran out comfortable winners.
Was Brown's elbow intentional?
Yes
No
Halsey talked about the incident involving Brown and Tshibola and said: “His arm’s bent, he’s giving the elbow. He’s rather fortunate the referee’s not seen it. It’d be interesting to see if the Scottish FA take retrospective action on that situation.
“It’s violent, why do that? Why put your elbow into someone’s face when the ball’s not even in play. Why do that?”
He also said: “I think the SFA have got to be consistent in what they do with retrospective punishment. They’ve got to be fair across the board.”
While Halsey seems convinced that Brown committed an act of violent conduct against Kilmarnock, he did indeed face scrutiny from the SFA for the elbow. However, it was recently announced that Brown will face no further action.
Another former Premier League referee, Dermot Gallagher, has also given his opinion about the incident. He has made it clear that it wasn’t an act of violent conduct but Brown did take a risk while getting the elbow out.
He feels that the incident was ‘petulant’ rather than violent and it didn’t fall under the category of serious foul play either.
There seems to be a variety of opinion about the incident and perhaps common sense has prevailed following the SFA’s ruling – though it seems Halsey will not have seen eye to eye with the decision to clear Brown of violent conduct.