Neil Lennon blasts SFA decision following Celtic controversy

Neil Lennon’s Celtic side may have produced a mix bag of results on the pitch this season, but there is no denying that luck has not been on their side at any point this season either.

Thus, when the SFA decided to take a look at the penalty involving Albian Ajeti, nobody could have been blamed for feeling that the Swiss striker was destined to serve a two-game suspension. Although there was no way to prove that there was any diving involved and there could have very well have been contact between the player and the goalkeeper. In fact, it did look like that was the case.

According to the Daily Record, Lennon was “flummoxed” at the decision to charge the striker with a potential two-match ban for the incident.

After earlier vowing to fight the suspension, Celtic have fortunately managed to make their appeal worth it, with his suspension cleared by the SFA on Tuesday.

The Celtic boss does not seem impressed with the recent events

This comes after Rangers boss Steven Gerrard called for disciplinary consistency after his star man Alfredo Morelos’ three-match ban for a challenge against Hibernian, despite saying he cannot defend the player’s actions in the altercation.

Lennon blamed the actions on the SFA’s buckling under fan complaints as a potential reason for the disciplinary inconsistencies across the league, and deflected when asked about whether Celtic and Rangers players are seemingly receiving more discipline than others:

"“That doesn’t make it right. Our game against Motherwell was pretty high profile and the collision with Cole and Soro did look a little bit dubious. So is there a case for it to be looked at? If it’s a yellow card then fine, let’s move on because I’ve seen worse this season.”"

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Lennon goes on to claim that the collision on Soro looked like a much more violent offense than anything between Ajeti and Doyle, which left the 22-year-old midfielder writhing in pain for a stretch. He then hits out on the fact that the discipline was made retroactively, rather than in-match:

"“This one in particular is a strange one for me. We are sort of re-refereeing games now which, in essence, is the right thing to do. If there’s been some sort of foul play that the referee has missed then, yes, I think they should be punished or looked at.”"

While retroactively offering discipline for violent or excessive offences in matches makes sense and is a common practice among many sports leagues around the world, there surely needs to be greater consistency on the decisions made after the players leave the pitch.