PFA Scotland chairman John Rankin watched his team-mate become the latest victim of the trend towards trial by TV last week and yesterday admitted he fears the game is going down a dangerous road.
The Dundee United midfielder was disappointed to see a three-match ban dished out to Gavin Gunning after TV footage captured him kicking Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk, even though the infringement was not punished at the time by match referee Crawford Allan.
But while Rankin stopped short of challenging the controversial decision, the 30-year-old suggests the use of technology to target players retrospectively has become a thorny subject for almost every Scottish club on the receiving end.
And that has prompted the players’ union chief to reiterate calls for a common sense approach which should include the views of former players who know the game inside out.
Rankin said: “Are we going to try every incident that goes that way? I think we need a clear focus on what’s violent conduct and what’s not, and what is breaking the rules.
“If you get someone from the TV companies going through each game with a fine-tooth comb they will probably find something in each game that could get someone banned.
“At the end of the day, we’re not looking to ban players, we are looking to clean the game up.
“You want the best product on the pitch and that’s not going to happen with players being banned all the time.
“You’ve got four officials at the game plus one in the stand that can pick up on these things.
“Obviously it’s hard with the naked eye and there’s so much going on at the same time, it’s hard to monitor everything.
“But if you’ve got television people going through it all and wanting to penalise players obviously it’s good press for them and it looks good that they can pinpoint things it’s not good for Scottish football.
“We should be talking up the good not dragging the game through the mud.”
The Gunning case is just one of many which have been dealt with by the judicial panel at Hampden in recent years, although the process of using TV replays has come in for criticism by some who perceive punishments to be selective.
United chairman Stephen Thompson pointed out that incidents involving Celtic players Scott Brown and Joe Ledley in the same game Gunning was cited for were overlooked because they did not feature in TV highlights packages.
With that in mind, Rankin revealed that the union deals with a huge number of complaints from players and clubs who have been affected by so-called trial by TV, and believes there has to be an ex-player involved in the decision-making process.
“We speak about this on a regular basis and we are striving to try and get an ex-player on the panel,” he added. “There’s an ex-referee and people from the SFA but I think we need a player in there with game experience to put across their opinion too.
“We are striving to do that but I don’t know how close we are to getting that. Fraser Wishart (PFA Scotland chief executive) has been in talks and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.
“If we can get at least one ex-player on that panel it helps everybody.
“But there are club reps at every club and it’s something that comes up time and time again.
“We need to stand up and be counted. Obviously I’m the voice for the players to go and speak to Fraser but as a group you’d be amazed at the numbers of players who complain about the system.
“Every club has got something to say, whether it’s bookings, suspensions or the £1,000 cost to appeal suspensions.
“But there are so many opinions throughout the PFA that it’s going to be difficult for Fraser to put them all across at the one time.
“I think we need to get round a table and talk about it.
“The heat of the moment happens all the time and, if these incidents are not major issues, why are they dragging it through (the television and disciplinary system)?”
Rankin has only been sent off once in his career, against St Mirren in March, and admits he felt that was harsh at the time.
He added: “I thought about appealing it but, at the end of the day, £1,000 is £1,000 and if your appeal is knocked because there’s not a player on the panel to stand up your account then you lose that money.
“It’s difficult when you’ve got people judging you who have never played the game.”