The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lennon gets third letter from SFA compliance chief
THE SCOTTISH Football Association’s compliance officer Vincent Lunny has written to Neil Lennon for the third time in just over a week.
He wants an explanation of comments made by the Celtic manager about referees ahead of their Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash with St Johnstone at Parkhead on Sunday.
Ahead of the visit
of the Saints, which will be refereed by George Salmond, Lennon was quoted in a newspaper on Tuesday as saying: “It will be nice just to be able to go out and think only about winning a game of football — and maybe have a decent refereeing performance into the bargain.”
The Parkhead boss has allegedly breached rule 69, which prevents managers commenting on referees before games, a rule which was implemented at the start of the season.
Lennon has until Friday to respond.
The former Hoops skipper was served with a notice of complaint by Lunny on Monday after being sent off by referee Calum Murray at half-time in the 3-2 SPL defeat by Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday, which Lennon described as “a joke”.
Lunny had already written to the Northern Irishman asking him to explain his comments following last week’s 1-0 Scottish Communities League Cup final defeat against Kilmarnock at Hampden when he referred to referee Willie Collum’s decision not to award the Hoops a late penalty as “shocking” and “criminal”.
In October, Hearts manager Paulo Sergio escaped with a warning for his comments about match official Iain Brines before his side’s SPL win over Dunfermline.
Brines had riled the Portuguese boss when he disallowed an Eggert Jonsson goal for handball during the Jambos’ 1-0 Scottish Communities League Cup defeat by Ayr United the previous month.
Sergio said: “I am not happy with that. I am not happy to have him at Hearts games, I’m sorry.”
Sergio was also censured for breaching rule 68 which, among other things, relates to the indication of “bias or incompetence on the part of such match official; or make remarks about such match official(s) which impinge on his character”.