McAlister happy to see Ciftci punished

EXCLUSIVE by JOHN McGARRY and CALUM CROWE

JIM McALISTER last night told Nadir Ciftci he did himself no favours by denying he bit him during the last Tayside derby of the season. The Turk, who joined Celtic for £1.5million from Dundee United earlier this month, has been hammered with a six-game ban — with a further two suspended — after being found guilty of biting the winger at Tannadice in May. With echoes of the Luis Suarez incident that shamed English football, the SFA Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that Ciftci used ‘excessive misconduct’ in what turned out to be one of his last games for United. Ciftci will be banned for six games with immediate effect, although that will only apply to the domestic matches, so the striker will be available to play in

From Back Page Celtic’s Champions League qualifying fixtures which continue tomorrow evening against FC Stjarnan in Iceland. The player left the Hampden hearing yesterday without making comment and Celtic also kept their counsel. But McAlister, who has subsequently left Dundee, believes Ciftci dug himself into an even deeper hole by refusing to accept what he had done at the time. ‘I said at the time as well, if he had admitted it then and apologised publicly, perhaps we wouldn’t have had to go to Hampden today. I’d have accepted that and moved on,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘Unfortunately, here we are weeks down the line but thankfully a judgment’s been made. ‘It’s up to him if he wants to come clean now. He might want to keep his cards close to his chest. ‘Everyone’s different. It was a football matter that happened so I think he should have been punished in a football way.’ McAlister took to social media to show the bite marks on his leg on the night of the incident but says he has now drawn a line under the affair. ‘I’m just glad at the end of the day that the right decision has been reached. The panel looked at all the evidence and obviously deemed that I was telling the truth all along,’ he added. ‘I wish Nadir all the best. He can now get on with his new adventure at Celtic and I can get on with my career. ‘It was clear in my mind what happened. As I’ve said to umpteen people, what did I have to gain out of accusations like that in the final game of the season? You don’t expect that to happen on a football field. ‘I’m just glad all the evidence was taken on board and the right decision was arrived at. ‘That’s the matter finished. Life’s too short to hold grudges.’