Brendan Rodgers has no regrets over his post-Tynecastle comments that have resulted in a one match dug-out suspension.
The Celtic boss spoke out about the incompetence of John Beaton on VAR duty as he prompted Don Robertson to red card Yang Hyun-jun and award Hearts a penalty for the most innocent of handballs that no-one involved called for with no pundits backing up that decision.
Rodgers was quite open in his criticism of Beaton’s inconsistencies, claiming that the match was being re-refereed with the VAR official mentioned by name.
Three days after the match Yang’s appeal against being sent off was rejected with the winger forced to serve a two match suspension.
On Thursday, 25 days after the comments were made Rodgers appealed against the Notice of Complaint but was unsuccessful with a one match ban with another one match ban held over if he reoffends this season.
🗣️ “We’ll take our punishment at the weekend and then I’ll be looking forward to that game afterwards.”
Brendan Rodgers discusses his SFA dugout ban for the trip to Livingston and returning for Celtic’s clash against Rangers – both live on Sky Sports 📺 pic.twitter.com/SyIwL1D2Yk
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 29, 2024
I think there is just a misunderstanding of the interpretation really. In my time here I have always talking about improving standards, whether that is with VAR or whether it was the pitches we play on. My whole drive is to improve the standards and I just thought on that occasion it just wasn’t understood.
Very little detail has emerged from yesterday’s hearing, it isn’t known if the audio between the two officials was played and the reasoning for one match being suspended.
Between the match at Hearts and Rodgers’ appearance at Hampden the SFA announced that Crawford Allan, their Head of Refereeing was seeking fresh opportunities at the end of the season. A report in the Daily Mail revealed that Allan had been forced out following a vote of no confidence from Premiership clubs.
On Sunday, Robertson, the referee from Tynecastle will be in charge of Celtic’s match at Livingston. Next week the SFA will announce the referee for the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox with Beaton the favourite for the job.
NOTE: Callum McGregor missed training today but Reo Hatate and Cameron Carter-Vickers appeared fully involved. Rodgers did say that he had a good chance of being involved at Ibrox next Sunday.
CLICK HERE for Celtic statement on Rodgers’ ban
CLICK HERE for Celtic refuse tickets for Ibrox.
