Crash course: Celtic and SFA in fresh battle over Neil Lennon

Updated: 21:56 EST, 16 March 2011

Celtic are locked on another major collision course with the SFA — despite declining to appeal Neil Lennon’s latest ban.

The Parkhead club will instead stand by their belief that Lennon’s four-match  punishment for his touchline altercation with Ally McCoist should run concurrently with the four-game suspension he is serving for being sent to the stand at Tynecastle in November.

That, in effect, would mean the manager being suspended for only one additional match for his part in the flashpoint at the end of the fiery Old Firm Scottish Cup replay earlier this month.

Celtic base their claim on the fact SFA notification of their manager’s latest ban stated it would be effective from March 16.

The Parkhead club believe they have strong legal basis for their standpoint and will launch a vigorous challenge against the ruling body if their view is contradicted.

That means another confrontation between Parkhead and Hampden is now looming as the SFA will stand by their Schorgenhofer (Austria) insistence that the bans are to run consecutively.

Celtic believe Lennon has three further matches to serve after sitting in the stand for
last night’s Scottish Cup tie in Inverness, while the SFA insist he is barred from the dugout for six further games.

A statement released by Celtic last night read: ‘Celtic Football Club confirms that Neil Lennon has not challenged the imposition of an automatic four-match suspension arising from the Celtic v Rangers game on March 2.

‘Neil and the club have decided, in the wider interests of the club and Scottish football, not to appeal against the imposition of the ban, nor the reasons for it.

‘In accordance with the SFA’s disciplinary procedures and the SFA’s original intimation of the ban issued on March 9, Neil will be serving this suspension concurrently with his existing suspension.

‘He will therefore not be in the dugout for the four first-team matches from, and including, the game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.’

Celtic’s latest rumble with the SFA comes after Rangers secured the services of assistant boss Ally McCoist in the dugout for Sunday’s Cooperative Insurance Cup Final by appealing his two-game ban.

McCoist believes a mandatory two-game ban to be harsh and is unhappy that the SFA
imposed the punishment without hearing his side.

Now the man poised to inherit the manager’s job next season will have his day at Hampden, with a governing body statement confirming that the appeal will be heard by the disciplinary committee on April 12.

McCoist was due to sit out the clash with Celtic and an Ibrox league game against Dundee United on April 2, but a statement on the Rangers website confirmed McCoist ‘has lodged an appeal with the SFA following their decision to impose a two-match suspension from the technical area’.