Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers isn’t backing down in his war of words with the Scottish FA, insisting their report on the red card given to Hyunjun Yang last week was flawed.
Rodgers is in hot water with the governing body after questioning the competency of referee Don Robertson and VAR official John Beaton in the wake of last week’s defeat to Hearts.
As well as the Yang sending off, Hearts were awarded a baffling penalty leading to their opening goal.
The Bhoys manager could end up with a two-match touchline ban, with a hearing set to take place later this month.
However, asked if he has any regrets about his handling of the situation, Rodgers was clear this afternoon. He has none.
Brendan Rodgers on Celtic SFA furore
The Bhoys boss said [Daily Record]: “No, not at all. My job is to defend the team in the club and that’s what we’ll do, we’ll defend it vigorously. When the date comes, we’ll go from there.
“It’s that one game but my observation is over many games, around the inconsistency of decisions. I don’t want to go into it too much, I never talk too much about referees, I understand they make mistakes. But I felt the ones last week were clear errors in the game.”
Rodgers also shared he has taken issue with the official SFA version of events surrounding the Yang sending-off, continuing: “The first one, I’ve seen incidents worse than that (not lead to red cards). I thought the on-field decision was correct, the yellow card. We had a report back to say the studs and the boot were in the face of the player, which clearly, a couple of days later, was clearly not the case when you watch it. We’ll go through that and answer it later on in the month.”
Celtic correct to stand their ground
Rodgers has never been one for dialling up controversy surrounding refereeing incidents but he clearly feels in the right here. Celtic are giving him their full backing, too.
It remains to be seen what the fallout of all this will be. Rodgers also mentioned in his media conference he is set to sit down with the club and lawyers to put forth their case on a potential touchline ban.
The Bhoys aren’t backing down on this. Rightly so. When such glaring errors are made, they deserve to be challenged in the public eye.
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