Celtic have nothing to fear over Scott Brown’s SFA decision

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Scott Brown, as we all know by now, has been hit with a notice of complaint from the SFA.

Quite incredibly, Scottish football’s leading authority believes that the Celtic captain didn’t act in the best interests of association football. Apparently, this comes under rule 77.

Yes, the SFA may have a rulebook that they’re trying to cite here, but make no mistake, this is simply a case of trying to tarnish two clubs with the same brush.

But what did Brown truly do that was worth a citing from the SFA? After all, he didn’t do anything Ryan Kent didn’t do with his goal celebration. Kent made a provocative gesture to the Celtic supporters after equalising. Was that in the best interests of association football?

Why does this feel like it’s actually falling under the Rangers Are Raging and Need Someone to Blame Act of 2019? It’s extreme pettiness from the SFA in this case, and opens up a massive can of worms.

What is now deemed in the best interests of association football? Can footballers no longer give anything back to supporters that goad them for 90 minutes? Provocative celebrations to opposition fans also often result in yellow cards. Therefore, how can Brown be cited for it?

A case of the SFA needing to balance scales?

Or is this just generally because he was winding Rangers players up throughout the contest last Sunday? If so, what a future the SFA has in store dealing with similar issues from other players.

But this isn’t a ban Celtic should fear. They have history and the truth on their side in this one. The club has already confirmed it will defend any accusations towards Brown “vigorously”. Quite right too.

It all feels as though the SFA felt they needed to take action against someone at Celtic. Because Rangers were so lacking in any sportsmanlike etiquette, the scale of blame has tipped far too convincingly in one way – Ibrox.

Therefore, the SFA are clearly trying to balance the scales a little by throwing Brown on the chopping block.

Celtic, however, won’t be worried. There’s a history of wind-up merchants over the years that have tried to get under Celtic players’ skins, and other clubs too. This obscure part of the SFA rulebook hasn’t been seen by many if any of them.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, but it most certainly shouldn’t lead to any ban for Brown.