Dundee United have been delivered a disciplinary bombshell by the SFA regarding striker Nadir Ciftci.
The Tangerines had already confirmed they would contest the red card shown to their player during the ill-tempered Scottish League Cup quarter-final tie against Inverness Caley Thistle.
It was expected that he would be served a notice of complaint by the governing body accusing him of using violent conduct against Inverness player Graeme Shinnie.
That has happened and United have lodged an appeal of wrongful dismissal on behalf of Ciftci.
What wasn’t anticipated, though, was the second notice of complaint that alleges the Turkish frontman grabbed assistant referee Gavin Harris by the throat.
There will be two disciplinary hearings, each covering the separate charges in order.
The first has been fast-tracked and will take place next Thursday, while the second has been scheduled for Thursday, November 21.
The first complaint alleges a breach of disciplinary rule 200 by Ciftci for: “Violent conduct by grabbing an opposing player by his face.”
The punishment if found guilty will be an immediate one-match ban, one match in the League Cup and a further one-game suspension in the Premiership dated from November 12. This would be subject to deletion in the event of United’s appeal being successful.
The second notice of complaint has come out of the blue and alleges a breach of disciplinary rule 201.
The charge is: “Excessive misconduct at a match by seizing hold of an assistant referee, namely Gavin Harris, by the throat.”
Ciftci and the club have until next Thursday, the day of the first hearing, to decide if they are to appeal that one.
The news that Ciftci is facing two complaints came after United manager Jackie McNamara revealed he was told on the night of the game by referee Kevin Clancy and assistant Harris that Ciftci was deemed to have “slapped” Shinnie.
McNamara, who has carefully studied video of the incident, feels that wasn’t the case and that United have a good chance of winning the appeal.
He is also clearly still irked that the thing that kicked off the chaos an off-the-ball challenge on United’s Gary Mackay-Steven by ICT captain Richie Foran has been lost in the fog of the red-card row.
“I think we have a case because otherwise we wouldn’t be appealing it,” said McNamara. “They said he slapped him, that it was violent conduct and he slapped him on the upper body.
“I have looked at the footage and, to be honest, he (Ciftci) has gone over to speak to the linesman and there are three players surround him, pushing him and intimidating (him).
“If players are guilty then they will be punished but we are looking for consistency and clarification.
“I was told after the game by the linesman and the referee why he was sent off and I want to make sure that is what’s in the report of the game when I see it.”
Asked if he thought there were other similar incidents within the melee that went unpunished, he replied: “Yes.”
McNamara argued that it was a sense of team unity that made the rest of the players protest after Mackay-Steven had gone down without any action being taken by the officials.
“The lads are guilty of sticking together,” added the United boss. “At the incident with GMS, they felt something was wrong there. They all got involved. But the incident that sparked the whole thing has gone unnoticed. There has been no footage of it, unfortunately.
“When you see the start of that (the United complaints about the Foran challenge), it was a quiet protest as they went to speak to the linesman. Suddenly there was a lot of pushing and shoving and we got penalised for that.
“We felt that was a bit unjust and hoped for more consistency. The players stuck together after that and you can see that with my players when they score they all celebrate together.
“That means there is good team spirit there. They thought their team-mate had been hard done by in an off-the-ball incident which had gone unnoticed. He (Mackay-Steven) was also getting abuse from the manager (Terry Butcher), which you can see (on the footage).
“That team spirit will stand them in good stead but they need to learn as well because they are only young. Nadir is a young player, too, as he is only 21. He is down but I have spoken to him and it’s all part of learning.”
Indeed, McNamara wants all of his players to use the experience to avoid getting involved in something similar in future.
Asked if perhaps the Inverness players were more streetwise on the night than his young team, he replied: “I think so, yes. I said before the game that we should be disciplined and not get involved in things.
“A lot of things went on which I was disappointed with but we have to move on. We are out the cup and all this won’t change that. We are out but we can take something from it because the effort the lads put in for 80 minutes with only 10 men was great.
“The lads put a hell of a shift in. The most important thing now is that we learn and if something like that happens again we need to rise above it and hope that the officials do their jobs properly.”
The appeal means Ciftci can play against Celtic on Saturday but there are doubts over defender Andrew Robertson and goalkeeper Rado Cierzniak.
Robertson has a dead leg and Cierzniak an ankle problem.
McNamara said: “Andy and Rado are struggling a bit and we have others carrying knocks. We will see how they get on in training and then take it from there.
“Rado hurt his ankle, while Andy has a dead leg which we hope will settle down. GMS took a few knocks but, as I have said, that seems to have been forgotten.”