LEIGH DENIAL
I never called ref Thomson biased, insists Griffiths
LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night backed down from his accusations of bias against referee Craig thomson.
the Celtic striker faces SFA action after criticising the Fifa official’s failure to red card Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine during the weekend defeat at Pittodrie.
Brought down in the penalty area by Considine, the scotland international was angered by thomson’s failure to show the Dons player a red card, arguing he would have staked his ‘mortgage that Craig sends one of our players off ’ if the offence had occurred at the other end.
Already facing a likely suspension over offensive chants in a pub concerning former Hearts player rudi skacel, however, Griffiths last night took to the Celtic website to insist he has ‘respect’ for thomson as a referee.
‘I never said the referee was biased or not good at his job at all,’ said Griffiths. ‘I’ve got a good relationship with Craig and I have total respect for him as a referee and a man.
‘I spoke to Craig during the game and he told me
the way he saw it. It’s only my opinion and it might not have come across. ‘But all I meant was, with a home team, the atmosphere, the crowd and their players going in on him, a referee can be put in a very difficult position to make a decision to show a red card. ‘This is not a criticism of Craig and there is no way I would question Craig in that way at all.’ Thomson also angered Aberdeen by sending off Dons winger Jonny Hayes in their 2-1 victory, with the Pittodrie side confirming they will appeal the red card shown to the Northern Irishman. Indeed Hayes, who is free to face Hamilton tonight, offered to pay the £1,000 appeal fee himself, so determined was he to clear his name after Thomson deemed his second-half tackle on Mikael Lustig a sending-off offence. ‘We are appealing Jonny’s red card,’ Dons boss Derek McInnes confirmed. ‘He actually came to me afterwards and offered to pay the money for the appeal himself. ‘That’s how sure he is that he shouldn’t have been sent off. ‘But we were always
going to appeal the red anyway. We are supporting Jonny because we feel it was an injustice and, of course, I told him the club are paying for it. ‘I don’t even think it’s a foul because he won the ball. He won the ball and his foot was flat without studs showing.’ Meanwhile, the SFA were last night forced to defend themselves following claims from Celtic’s Europa League opponents Ajax that they had told them sectarian terms such as ‘Fenian’ and ‘Orange’ were just part of the culture of Scottish football. A UEFA report revealed that the Dutch club, in attempting to defend themselves from a UEFA charge for a banner branding Celtic fans ‘Fenian b******s’ unveiled during a game against the Scots back in 2013, had gone to the SFA for advice. UEFA described the SFA as ‘reckless’ but Scottish football’s governing body denied the claims, stating: ‘The club (Ajax) was advised, in writing, that we would not provide any such statement. ‘For the avoidance of doubt, the Scottish FA did not present the information outlined in the submissions and we are seeking clarification on this matter from UEFA.’