You’ve just got to wonder if people at the Scottish Football Association live in the real world sometimes.
Love him or loathe him, the fact Celtic manager Neil Lennon was ordered to serve a three-match ban after being censured for using “offensive“ language is nothing short of ludicrous.
I must cover myself here by stressing that I don’t condone swearing at football matches and that footballers and managers as role modelshave an extra responsibility to watch their mouth.
What I don’t get is how this all came about, and surely common sense has to prevail?
Lennon was initially charged by the SFA for the “repeated use of offensive, insulting and abusive language” after TV microphones picked up his side of a verbal exchange with St Mirren’s Jim Goodwin.
Not the fourth official whose job it was to record such incidents, I hasten to add, but TV microphones.
The complaint was then upheld with the words “repeated” and “insulting and abusive” deleted this week, so Lennon found himself hauled over the coals on the basis he had used “offensive language”.
For that, he triggered a suspended three-match ban from last season and found himself sitting in the stand as his team claimed the SPL title today even though Goodwin himself and others have since made comments supporting the Celtic boss.
Let’s get it right, he swore at a St Mirren player in the heat of battle.It’s something you see and hear at all levels of the game.
Again, no-one condones this sort of thing but wouldn’t a ticking off maybe even a fine if necessary have done in this instance?
If you pull up every manager or player for swearing, Hampden may as well install a revolving door to try and save time.
It’s just the latest in a long line of decisions coming out of Hampden that makes you wonder.
It reminds me of going to interview Steve Lomas in Alloa earlier this year, where the passionate Saints boss genuinely feared he was about to be given a 16-match ban by SFA chiefs.
Days earlier, he had been given a six-match touchline ban after being sent to the stand during a draw with Celtic, which triggered a further two-match punishment suspended from earlier in the season for calling Ross County midfielder Richie Brittain a cheat.
But that day he had been issued with another SFA Notice of Complaint after being sent to the stand in a game against Hibs which could have seen his ban doubled.
What for?Kicking a water container after one of his players missed a penalty.
Banning managers from the dugout for misbehaving is fine, and is only right and proper to try to stop bosses from going over the score.
But if you are going to do that, consistency is a must as is common sense.
And I’m afraid Scottish football doesn’t seem to be benefiting from either just now.